Progress with the Coors Brief

I managed to make some significant progress with the Coors brief last week. I brought some initial ideas to my meeting with Steve, and he suggested story-boarding it out, and pushing the ideas outside of what the Coors brand would normally be comfortable with. It has really pushed the project on, and I’m at a stage now where I have three routes which are all viable options.

The first idea addresses the fact that the ‘always on’ culture makes it feel like we can be reached anywhere, and it feels like there is an expectation that we’ll be there to answer promptly. Sometimes this gets too much, and we find ourselves wishing we could get away. To overcome this, we need to feel like we’re entitled to time away, and this involves acknowledging and declaring intent. So the first idea is essentially about creating a message of empowerment to help people over that step.

I’ve identified two avenues that are promising. One is centred around the concept of ‘Coors Light is taking a break from social media,’ which dramatises a break that is only a few hours. It would mock the absurdity of the expectation that we’re expected to be contactable at all the times. While the second idea is inspired by the French ‘right to disconnect’ law, that prohibits employers from exploiting workers outside of work hours. It would be a compaign that focuses upon the social politic part of the problem. Although politics is a difficult territory for Coors Light brand, I think it could be an amazing campaign if its handled right. The socially aware Gen Z and millennials will be receptable to this type social justice if they see the act of switching off as an act of rebellion.

I was thinking of turning the Coors Light brand into a political platform where the campaign is about spending the marketing budget on the political petitioning. I have some rough ideas how this could play out. It could be a digital ad that announces the campaign that is backed up by taking Coors Light off the can, and turning the can into a petition instead. My only worry is that this kind of approach strays too far away from the Coors Light brand personality. With values such as ‘irreverent’, ‘effortless’, and ‘easy going’ it could quite easily become far too serious, and a laid-back approach to the petition could appear lacklustre.

So I’ve been thinking about how the Coors Light brand could find a sweet spot amongst this, and it was interesting seeing how they did a recent campaign. A few weeks I ago saw that they were campaigning for a football player to be inducted into the American football hall of fame. He featured in the spot and it basically had him chilling by a pool, as if he would be happy either way if he didn’t get in. He got in (not sure if its because of Coors) and their celebration ad had the guy taking out a Coors that had been waiting there for when he got inducted. It was like they were trying to say that they wanted to see him in the hall of fame, but he was already there in their eyes. Perhaps something similar could be done where the campaign isn’t a petition for the ‘right to disconnect’, but a campaign where Coors adds a 28th amendment onto the constitution.

Leaving that idea for them moment, there is also a second approach I’ve identified as well. It is about the moments when people compare themselves to others online when they see photos of achievements, exotic holidays, or experiences and feel inadequate in comparision. To counter this I propose that creating a campaign around gratitude would be an excellent antidote in those moments. The internet realm is so often about the big news, big achievements and big occasions that we forget to appreciate the little things. This led me to explore what that little thing is in the Coors Light brand world, and I think the cold has to be it, and by extention the humble refridgerator.

Initially this idea centred around a campaign to make the fridge a hero, which I think still could have legs. However, I went down a slightly different route where the can gained self-consciousness. I realised that the two ‘oo’s together are like two eyes when you add pupils. I storyboarded animation idea called ‘the can who couldn’t switch off’, where the can is in a fridge, and it watches other beers leaving the fridge to have amazing experiences. It starts wishing it could be out there too, but when it gets taken out and is left on the side, it realises the how much it appreciated the coldness of the fridge. I think this could great pushing the Coors brand into sentimental territory. My concern with this one is that in the brand document it says the brand isn’t ‘goofy,’ and I think the eyes idea could fit that description. Plus it could feel like it was made for kids.

Finally, my last idea is based on the insight that our fingers scroll 300 feet a day. The chill occasion comes when we’ve been a scrolling binge and feel mentally fatigued. I wanted to solve this by doing a campaign with connects the mental fatigue with the exertion the fingers have put in. I have several fun ideas, but the one I like the most is where two fingers go through a full work-out. In this particular version, I was thinking of the Lunchmoney Lewis song ‘Bills’ for the humour and to capture the grind of scrolling. I made a storyboard where working the smartphone becomes a full work out where its a running machine, and the source of all the other work. The campaign ad runs a montage of the whole day where the fingers visibly exhausted switches off by having a Coors Light ice bath. Making light of the fact that the fingers are like an athlete. If I choose this idea, I think I need to work how to engage social media with the campaign beyond the shares and the buzz around the ad being interesting. I was thinking of doing something with scrolling distances, and engaging conversion around that.