Budweiser may very well be as American as baseball, but what about soccer?
Not so much. Yet.
I'm convinced soccer is about to tip and become as big here in the US as it is abroad. And while I'm not sure quite what "big" looks like yet, I'd put money on it being bigger than just another premium sports channel streaming 86 games per day.
Anyone who disagrees or needs a little extra evidence, I offer you the Bud House.
I won't be tuning in to catch any of the Bud House antics, but I also don't come close to resembling the target demo so that's fine. This is still smart as hell.
Clearly the folks at Budweiser share my insight about the soccer groundswell and decided to make their move before they end up cast in the shadows of Heineken or some other beer with a chip on its shoulder or displaced pretense. (or, they just want to sell a shitload of beer right now and really haven't given the future much thought.)
I'm certainly not suggesting Bud will be the only beer marketer making its voice heard in this space. In fact, I expect it will get saturated fast, but Bud is a giant that has to be stealth with it's move and sharp with its positioning to hit a home run, eh, score a goal.
For better or worse, Bud has a reputation as a blue collar beer. And Bud Light has a reputation as a frat boy funneling or backyard BBQ refreshment. The current positioning(s) work for family parties, beach drinking and baseball bleachers, but soccer is a bit of new turf.
So here comes Bud and they decide rather than re-package Drinkability or pull out the man humor, to create a house and invite one person from each country represented in the World Cup. Then engage their online audience to vote the housemates out of the house based on their reactions to the game play. Or some combination of votes and game wins/losses.
OK, it's a little Survivor, a little bad reality show copy cat, but I like the decision to leverage the insight - not just about soccer, but the Global aspect too. There's a nice engagement piece that feels like it'll work with their audience and streaming footage too.
This is Bud's way of saying we're part of this soccer thing and this Bud's for you to drink when you get together with your crew to watch soccer.
Que those horns and let's call this ON STRATEGY.
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