Bud Light Steps Up Its N.F.L. Sponsorship Efforts

September 5, 2012, 7:00 am

By STUART ELLIOTT

Add Anheuser-Busch to the long list of sponsors of the National Football League that are opening their campaigns to help promote the start of the league's 2012-13 season.

Anheuser-Busch, part of Anheuser-Busch InBev, is introducing on Wednesday a campaign for its Bud Light brand, the official beer sponsor of the N.F.L. The campaign declares this to be the “Year of the Fan.”

The campaign is extensive, including a fantasy football promotion using codes on more than two billion bottles of beer; television commercials from Translation in New York, the new lead creative agency for the Bud Light brand; and covering the paper cartons for 12-packs of 12-ounce cans of Bud Light with a material that to some degree feels like a football.

Ads are also coming out for other major sponsors of the season, which begins on Wednesday. They include GMC trucks, New Era caps, Tide detergent, Pepsi-Cola, Frito-Lay snacks, Gatorade, Tropicana and Quaker Oats.

This will be the second season that Bud Light, the nation's best-selling beer brand, will be the official beer sponsor of the N.F.L. “We had a very successful Year 1,” said Mike Sundet, vice president for Bud Light at Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, as evidenced by “a lot of brand health improvement.”

“Year 2 is all about making that even bigger and even better,” Mr. Sundet said, by “making sure we focus on the fans.”

“It's not about being a corporate sponsor,” he added. “It's about making the game more enjoyable for N.F.L. fans and Bud Light drinkers.”

The fantasy football aspect of the campaign is already under way, under the name Bud Light Fant asy Football League. A section of the Bud Light Web site, budlight.com, is devoted to the promotion, as is a commercial by Translation.

“Welcome to Bud Light fantasy football,” an announcer says, “where every bottle is a player.” Actors playing fans then describe how they are faring in the league, based on the codes on the beer bottle caps that they enter on budlight.com/ffl.

“My Bud Light threw four touchdowns,” one happy fan says.

But not all bottles are winners, alas, as depicted by a morose fan who says, “My Bud Light fumbled at the three-yard line.”

Another new commercial by Translation is about fans rather than the Bud Light fantasy promotion. The spot, which features the Stevie Wonder song “Superstition,” shows the oddball and offbeat rituals that superstitious fans observe, like crossing their fingers, wearing different-colored socks, going barefoot and touching a banner as they enter a room.

As the commercial conclu des, these words appear on screen: “It's only weird if it doesn't work.” Then an announcer says: “Bud Light, the official beer of fans who do whatever it takes. Here we go.” (“Here we go” is the Bud Light brand ad theme.)

The spot about superstitions may remind some viewers of a commercial that Coca-Cola ran during Super Bowl XLVI in February, which promoted the Coke Polar Bowl featuring the animated Coca-Cola polar bears.

The Coke commercial, called “Superstition,” showed a polar bear crossing its fingers and toes, among other rituals, as it watched the game.

The two Bud Light commercials will run during the game on Wednesday that kicks off the 2012-13 season, between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys.

Bud Light will run spots on all the networks and channels that will present games during the season, Mr. Sundet said, including ESPN, CBS, Fox and NFL Network.

Other elements of the campaign include a Tickets for Life Sweepst akes, a promotion to encourage recycling and ads aimed at Hispanic consumers.

Translation had already been working on the Bud Light commercials, Mr. Sundet said, when it was named the lead creative agency for the brand last month. Translation, which also creates campaigns for brands like Bud Light Lime and Bud Light Platinum, took over the creative duties for Bud Light from McGarryBowen, part of the Dentsu Network unit of Dentsu.

Stuart Elliott has been the advertising columnist at The New York Times since 1991. Follow @stuartenyt on Twitter and sign up for In Advertising, his weekly e-mail newsletter by clicking here.