“Cobra Kai” is back for Season 4, and with it, Johnny Lawrence’s favorite beer: Coors Banquet.
When the popular “Karate Kid” spinoff’s new season dropped on Netflix on Dec. 31, its main character’s go-to brew was back in the spotlight, and Coors Banquet is challenging eagle-eyed viewers to keep track of the beer’s cameos for a chance to win free Banquet for a year.
“One thing we’ve learned from the last few seasons is that people notice Banquet and pay attention to how and when the brand shows up on-screen. We know ‘Cobra Kai’ fans are just as excited as we are for the new season,” says Rose Bleakley, associate marketing manager for Coors Banquet.
Starting Jan. 4, through the end of January, viewers can enter at Seekthebanquets.com for a chance to win a year’s worth of Coors Banquet, in the form of a $500 gift card, as well as a Coors Banquet-branded bonsai tree, by accurately tallying how many times the beer shows up in the new season. Five second-place winners will also be awarded a Banquet bonsai tree. Entrants age 21 and up must get within five of the correct answer to qualify for a chance to win.
The brand plans to target “Cobra Kai” fans across social media platforms, including the nearly 80,000 who participate in the series’ avid Reddit community.
Coors Banquet has had a recurring role on the show since it first aired in 2018. It’s the favorite beer of Johnny Lawrence, the “Karate Kid” villain who undergoes a redemptive arc through the course of “Cobra Kai.”
“Coors Banquet has been a breakout star on ‘Cobra Kai.’ It’s introduced Banquet to a new generation of fans who we hope will turn into loyal drinkers,” Bleakley says.
Indeed, “Cobra Kai” has catapulted awareness of the brand. More than 40 million viewers tuned into the show’s third season, and the brand earned more than 170 million impressions among viewers 21 and up through the first four weeks the last season aired, according to a new Nielsen metric measuring subscription video-on-demand brand integrations.
After the new season debuted last January, the beer saw a sizeable bump in Google searches – and sales, to the tune of 13% for the week that ended Jan. 10, 2021, versus the prior year, according to IRI multi-outlet and convenience store data. In 2021, Coors Banquet was on track to finish up nearly a point higher versus last year and on pace to beat its sales expectations for the year, Bleakley says.
While the brand hopes its presence on “Cobra Kai” will continue, it also appears alongside other Molson Coors products in Paramount’s “Yellowstone."
“We have big plans for 2022, and we’re looking forward to seeing Coors Banquet on TV and elsewhere in culture,” Bleakley says. “This is a chance for millions of people to learn more about why Coors Banquet has been sought after for nearly 150 years.”