Miller High
Life
New Blues Influencer Program
For a beer that was
once the jewel in the Miller Brewing
Company’s crown, High Life had
fallen on hard times by the early
‘90s. However, a decade later,
despite minimal but consistent
advertising support, the Champagne
of Beers was growing
again—attracting a new, younger
drinker.
Miller asked Ammo to explore this phenomenon and recommend
how, if at all, to capitalize on High Life’s
newfound popularity. Following an extensive
Cultural Intelligence study in which the
Ammo team walked in the shoes of 21–28 year
old guys and explored their values,
motivations and brand affiliations, we
recommended a pilot grass-roots Influencer
program in four US cities. Central to the
program was the concept of ‘one degree of
separation’; this new group of drinkers,
termed New Blues, were attracted to the
brand for all the same reasons that they
rejected the Buds, Heinekens and Coors of
this world: discovery and authenticity. Our
research told us that whatever we did had to
be subtle and feel credible, working from
the ground up, with the lnfluencers and
local communities that formed the core of
the New Blues’ lives. The golden rule: never
advertise
at them, never sell out. |
By employing High Life Brand Champions in
the markets to identify and work with key
Influencers, both on- and off-premise, and
by subtly seeding appropriate merchandise in
the places that these men and women shop, we
fed a groundswell of desire for the brand
that translated to dramatic distribution and
sales success, and avoided the backlash that
traditional promotional programs would have
created.
The real proof of the program’s success,
aside from sales gains of 65% in one market
and distribution gains of 300% in another?
The original four test markets have been
expanded to 31 for 2004/5, with Miller’s
local marketing teams and distributors
clamoring for the program. Well drink to
that type of success, with the Champagne of
Beers, of course!
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