Do you remember the old Bud Light Dilly Dilly commercials? If not, take a well-earned break and refresh your memory with this Bud Knight Video.
As you can see, Dilly Dilly is associated with the Bud Knight breaking up a battle. This marketing campaign was liked and well received. It’s message was to bring people together over a beer and gained so much popularity that people bought shirts and said “Dilly Dilly.”
Bud Light’s newest marketing campaign was not as well received. Bud Light partnered with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, a TikTok star with 10.8 million followers. Bud Light sent her a 6-pack can to celebrate 365 days as a woman. This was met with backlash from critics of Ms. Mulvaney and featured people dumping out, running over, and shooting their Bud Light. People even went so far as to claim they will never drink another Bud Light so long as they live. This all may sound like a marketing disaster for Bud Light, but let’s take a look at the goal of the marketing campaign.
The VP of Bud Light marketing Alissa Heinersheid said that Bud Light needed to update its “fratty” reputation to survive in the coming years. The goal of their influencer campaign with Ms. Mulvaney did exactly that, it modernized Bud Light. It took something that many saw as “fratty” and changed the tone. I am not saying that the partnership was a smashing success, but it did achieve the goal of the campaign.
So, what worked and what didn’t?
What worked:
• Bud Light updated their previous image to a brand that cares about inclusion.
• It expanded their brand to a new growing LGBTQIA+ market in the United States.
• Stockbrokers are claiming that declining stock will not last long and the company will be more profitable in the long run.
• It created a lot of buzz about the inclusivity of the Bud Light brand.
What didn’t:
• There was confusion about if the 6-pack with Ms. Mulvaney’s face was the new can or a one-off.
• A specific group of customers felt betrayed.
• It created negative PR for Bud Light from what many people claim is its core customer group. This negative PR has led to boycotts of the brand.
• Stock prices dropped for a few weeks.
This was a successful campaign, despite what most people are saying. It grew the company in the direction of a new, largely untapped market. It updated the company image to grow with the times. Another indication of success is the stock price. After the initial drop the stock price is already recovering. Bud Light’s partnership with Ms. Mulvaney was exactly what the VP of marketing imagined when she endorsed the partnership and sent Ms. Mulvaney her own 6-pack.
