While I was doing a research on the LPGA and Anheuser-Busch (A-B) many moons ago, I had a unique opportunity to visit the hallowed grounds of sport marketing at the A-B HQ in St. Louis. Met with a bunch of A-B sport marketing folks and have a good understanding of its undisputed sponsorship objective - to sell more beer.
For the past 8 years, A-B with no official ties to the NFL had to rely solely on creative ads to prolong its football association around the Super Bowl. In the meantime, MillerCoors has enjoyed an upward growth in category sales thanks to its being the official sponsor of the NFL. I guess time has come for A-B to surrender the white flag and admit that moving the bottles is far more important than moving the minds of consumers.
No doubt, A-B is taking a huge risk here. Is it humanly possible to stack up a $1Billion worth of money in $100 bills? That's right. A lot of money is being thrown at the NFL who is not through with its CBA for the 2011 season - the year that the new A-B deal kicks in. Furthermore, I view this new deal as A-B's transition to the InBev regime has not been as smooth or successful as it had hoped. It's a shout out to its distributors, wholesalers, retailers AND consumers that A-B is not going to be about this massive Belgian brewer, at least not in North America, but the maintaining of the hallmark status of American tradition and values. It might have gotten desperate for A-B at this point, I don't know. Sure, there is NO OTHER property in the US that presents as much religious followings and opportunities as the NFL, but to dump that much money to win back the partnership? Remember, A-B was probably the only sport advertiser who never pulled back on its ad spending throughout the recent recession - meaning they tried everything else via sport but the official NFL sponsorship and still didn't feel it's achieved what it expected to achieve. I view this thing as the ultimate do-or-die challenge for A-B.
Back in 2002 when A-B gave up on the NFL sponsorship, we didn't have YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. Now, those three "social media" pretty much dictate how we produce, consume and share news and other contents of interests. Of all the great things about social media, the most scary aspect that presents opportunities too is the speed with which we communicate through these three media platforms. A-B without the official sponsorship could NOT catch up to the speed of today's information communication and consumption in my view. I view this deal as A-B acknowledgment that without firm footing in social media even a marketing behemoth like A-B could not compete. Can you imagine a number of different and crazy ways for A-B to leverage the NFL shield and all of its assets through social media?? Endless. And I KNOW that A-B will come out swinging as soon as the clock hits 2011 (provided that there is no work stoppage then).
Remember, A-B is the kind of single-minded folks whose name of the game is to SELL MORE BEER and they will find more ways to move the bottles through this expensive acquisition. Just buckle up and get ready to be bombarded with A-B/NFL promos on and offline. It's going to be quite a ride, people.
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