It’s only 30 seconds, but it took more than 30 years to happen.
Molson Coors said today it would run an ad during the Super Bowl in 2023, an announcement coming four weeks to the day since rival Anheuser-Busch InBev said it would relinquish an exclusive arrangement to be the Big Game’s only beer sponsor that dated back to 1989.
The brewer this week signed an agreement this week to purchase 30 seconds of commercial time for the game from broadcaster Fox, said Michelle St. Jacques, Molson Coors’ chief marketing officer. The Super Bowl, recognized as advertising’s biggest stage and a reliable provider of the year’s largest television audience, is scheduled for Feb. 12, 2023, in Glendale, Arizona.
St. Jacques did not specify which Molson Coors brand—or brands—the company planned to feature in its ad. But St. Jacques said the decision to jump in after such a long wait was an easy one, emphasizing that the brands—which include Coors Light, Miller Lite, Topo Chico Hard Seltzer and Blue Moon—are healthy enough and creative enough to belong there.
“The minute we heard, it was a no-brainer,” she said, describing a phone conversation with Brad Feinberg, the company’s VP of media and consumer engagement, immediately upon learning the opportunity had become available.
“It wasn’t even a question of ‘should we do it,’ or whether we wanted to do it, it was only a question about how we are to do it," she said. “It was ‘What’s our play? What’s our strategy here? How do we want to approach this?’”
AB InBev, parent of brands such as Budweiser, Bud Light and Michelob Ultra, said on June 16 it would not pursue its customary practice of shutting out its alcohol rivals from in-game Super Bowl ads. That was a practice it had maintained by negotiating separately with each network broadcasting the Super Bowl to buy multiple advertising spots. The tradition began in 1989 as a way to give the brand the time, space and focus to execute its multi-part “Bud Bowl” creative, according to Tony Ponturo, a former sports marketing executive at the brewer, then known as Anheuser Busch.
Canceling the practice, executives said last month, followed a reassessment of investment priorities that would better allow AB InBev to support an association with football year-round, including spring and summer marketing around the NFL Draft and kickoff events that take place when beer consumption tends to be higher.
AB InBev at the time also said it would still be a Super Bowl advertiser in 2023. With Molson Coors’ announcement today, and anticipation that still more adult beverage brands likely also want a shot they too had been long been denied, it's possible Super Bowl LVII could be the booziest ever.
In St. Jacques’ opinion, being shut out from the Big Game for so long actually helped to sharpen Molson Coors’ marketing chops, forcing it to find ways to attract the kind of attention in-game advertisers were getting, without actually being in the game. This took the form of stunts such as Miller Lite’s “bar in the Metaverse" this year or the “world’s longest URL” stunt in 2021. In 2009, Miller High Life creatively counterattacked its exclusive in-game rival with a one-second ad.
A successful Super Bowl ad for Molson Coors, St. Jacques said, would win attention and also business results. “We have to make sure we’re breaking through and doing something creatively interesting to get people's attention—and land a punch about what our brands stand for.”
Though still looking up at AB InBev’s Bud Light in market share, Molson Coors’ biggest brands, Coors Light and Miller Lite, have been outperforming its larger rival for more than a year. This, said St. Jacques, is in part a result of distinct and effective marketing behind its brands, and an indication they are “ready” for the Super Bowl spotlight.
“I think we’ve demonstrated over the past few years the power of our marketing, and also the work that our sales and marketing teams are doing. Molson Coors has been growing share of the total beer category over the last year and a half, and we couldn’t say that three years ago," she said. "Our big brands, [Coors Light and Miller Lite] are really performing well. They’re actually healthier than they’ve ever been.”
Before Anheuser-Busch gained a monopoly on Super Bowl advertising, Miller Lite's Big Game efforts included this 1985 spot starring Rodney Dangerfield as part of the brand's classic "Tastes Great, Less Filling" campaign.
