✓ Molson Coors took top honors for its creative work in 2023
✓ The awards show how its MUSCLE marketing framework is working
✓ The company finds ways to connect with consumers with new and innovative campaigns
There’s marketing, and then there’s marketing that drives impact. That’s the stuff people not only remember, but that drives results and makes a difference.
And that’s Molson Coors, according to the Effie Awards, a highly regarded industry competition that recognizes the most effective marketers and campaigns each year. And thanks to the strength of its 2023 work for Coors Light, Miller Lite, Blue Moon, Coors Banquet and Simply Spiked, Molson Coors was named the Effies’ 2024 Top US Marketer last week, eclipsing some of the best-known companies in the U.S.
THE BIG PICTURE
“At Molson Coors, we love creativity, and we love it even more when it sells more of our beverages. We’re proud to be recognized for creating effective memorable campaigns that have done just that,” says Sofia Colucci, Molson Coors’ chief marketing officer. “We have the best minds in the business working for Molson Coors, and the most creative agencies bringing ideas to life. These awards are for all of them as much as the company.”
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The Effies honored work done in the U.S. in 2023. It’s Molson Coors’ best showing in the Effies, having won numerous gold and silver awards in recent years. This year, Molson Coors received seven Effie awards, making it the top company in 2024's results.
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It’s a testament to the marketing philosophy the team has implemented -- known as MUSCLE, an acronym for “magnetic, unexpected, simple, crafted brilliantly, connected to a long-term platform and captures the essence of the brand” -- that serves as a tool to get to the most creatively effective work possible.
ZOOM IN
Molson Coors’ “High Stakes Beer Ad,” which marked its return to national Super Bowl advertising after 30 years, won two gold awards (in the Beverages/Alcohol and Media Innovation & New Channels categories) and two silvers (Seasonal Marketing and Media Idea). The ad pitted a Coors Light drinker and a Miller Lite drinker in a kung-fu style fight to see which beer would star in the ad – only to surprise the audience at the end when it was revealed to be a Blue Moon ad.
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The spot was created with a lead-up campaign that gave legal-age consumers a chance to win cash by correctly guessing, among other things, which brand would be featured in the ad.
Other Molson Coors work was recognized, as well.
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Simply Spiked Peach’s “Juicy Calls” program won bronze in the New Product or Service category
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Coors Light’s Coorsicles took bronze in the Seasonal/Event category
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Coors Banquet’s Protect our Protectors program won bronze in the Social Good Brands category
Stepped-up marketing programs
The honors come as Molson Coors has launched big programs in 2024, most notably with Coors Light’s Chill Train and Chill Amplified work and the return of Miller Lite’s heralded All Stars campaign, renewing the debate of “tastes great, less filling.”
The company also rolled out its new “MUSCLE” creative framework this year, built in partnership with its agency partners. The framework allows for both marketers and agency partners to identify the most creatively effective ideas while speaking the same creative language.
It has already led to breakthrough campaigns in 2024, including Molson’s “See My Name” in partnership with the PWHL, and Coors Light’s “Hits the Spot,” which created commemorative cans in real time after baseball’s biggest star hit a huge home run that knocked out a screen of a Coors Light digital ad in New York.
“Marketing is a place where our brands can shine bright, but we’re really clear that each brand has its own point of view,” says Colucci. “This has been very effective in growing our brands, making consumers want to choose us and, ultimately, reflective in sales.”
THE BOTTOM LINE
Molson Coors’ brands have a full slate of marketing hitting this spring and summer, with Coors Light’s Chill Amplified program playing up the music angle this summer, new creative on deck for Miller Lite’s All Stars, as well as a grilling program, and Simply Spiked’s partnership with ESPN, among others.
“Our teams do a great job with big swings and with really strategic programs that tap into our consumers’ passion points,” Colucci says. “To know they’re effective means we’re doing our job right and everyone, from our company to our distributors and retailers, benefits.”