BUDWEISER MEATS

CLIENT

Budweiser & Coleman Natural Foods

DESCRIPTION

Coleman Natural Foods is the King of Meats. Budweiser is the King of Beers. It only made sense that the two iconic brands would join forces to create delicious new products for their loyal customers. Once the recipes for Budweiser-infused ribs, pulled pork and bratwurst were perfected, Coleman needed to make a big splash to launch the new line to grocery stores at the 2019 Annual FMI Meat Conference. They needed a website, point of sale, PR, social, and most of all, compelling messaging to drive interest and sales.

The Coleman audience is primarily female Gen-Xers. The Budweiser audience is largely middle-aged males. But with grocery shopping and prepared foods purchasing trending towards Millennial Men, it made more sense for Budweiser BBQ’s messaging to recognize this overlooked group in food marketing.

After establishing our target audience, we set to work creating messaging that would speak to deliciousness, ease of use and the evolving social structure of young people. After testing a variety of umbrella statements on a focus group, we landed on “Feed Your Kingdom,” which evoked strength without being overtly masculine and could be referring to family or friends. We combined beautiful, custom food photography with Budweiser-branded visuals to create a modern, informative website, as well as sales slicks, POS materials, press releases and materials, and social media assets and content. The new brand launched March 5 and was an immediate sensation at the show and in the press.

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING

At the show alone, Coleman received commitments from 5000 stores to carry the new line, and nearly 200 online and printed publications, including Food & Wine, picked up the press release and ran the story. Budweiser BBQ was profiled on cable News channels, and was the subject of a good-natured joke on the Tonight Show.

Demand was so great for the product line that Budweiser itself was receiving inquiries and had to alter their corporate communications plans to accommodate Budweiser BBQ. Coleman looks on track to reach their target market saturation of 38 grocery chains and 20,000 stores by 2020.