Coors Banquet this week launched a new marketing campaign that celebrates the heart of the brand’s heritage: its 146-year history of being brewed only in Golden, Colo.
The campaign kicks off with a series of digital spots that feature Rocky Mountain imagery and the voice of Sam Elliott, fresh off his Academy Award nomination for A Star is Born. They end with the tagline: “Coors Banquet: Brewed in Golden, Colorado. Served Everywhere.”
The goal is to push Coors Banquet back to growth by connecting drinkers with its birthplace, from where it’s been “stolen, smuggled and sought after since 1873,” says Ryan Reis, vice president of the Coors family of brands.
Coors Banquet sales slipped in 2018 after 11 consecutive years of volume growth, partly due to production and supply issues.
But Reis says that’s a blip that can be fixed: “Our path to sustained growth is clear. Regain distribution, engage our core of loyal drinkers, and recruit new drinkers.”
The digital spots, which aim to reach the brand’s target drinkers — 25- to 34-old men — will run during livestreams of pro basketball and pro baseball games, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Hulu.
“Beautiful creative isn’t enough. We need our guys to see it,” Reis says. “That’s why this year we’re focusing our media spend in places where our growth target actually is. That means a sophisticated, targeted digital media plan on social channels and websites.”
The brand is spending a record amount on digital this year, both with the video spots and with a custom content series produced with a national digital media outlet that focuses on wildland firefighters and the communities they serve.
Banquet has long supported the Wildland Firefighters Foundation through its Protect our West program, donating more than $1.2 million over the past five years. This year, Reis says, “we’re going even bigger to make that connection.”