Image courtesy of Coors Light via X
I read an article this morning about something that happened over a year ago. In a fast-paced world, you’re probably wondering why I’m taking the time to write about it when it is very much old news. While I agree with the first part of that sentence and presumed thought, I don’t know if the intent of the story is old news. I actually think it’s very relevant to this exact moment.
Right now, there are a TON of people posting on social media. Some are doing it for family, some for their friends, and an unknown number are doing it because they’re chasing this thing, this elusive marketing buzzword we call virality. But the story I’m about to share shows you that “viral moments” often times happen by chance (dare we remind everyone about the “Hawk Tuah” moment of the summer??).
In late August of last year, Major League Baseball’s best and most popular player, Shohei Ohtani, cranked a ball foul at Citi Field. The ball struck Coors’ LED screen and broke a panel. The result—a blacked out square right above the famous red “C.” And instead of embarrassment or shame, Coors leaned into the moment and took advantage of what I would call marketing fate.
Posting to social media, Coors embraced the moment, cracked a few jokes, and even created collector’s cans with the blacked-out square. It was genius, it was fun, and it was successful. It brought Coors “virality” without any initial effort on their part.
Taking Advantage of a Beer Marketing Moment
Coors did exactly that. And in a saturated market of hundreds, if not thousands, of beer brands, sometimes you have to seize what’s in front of you. It would have been human nature to combat the trolls and comments online, crawling into a shame hole over the incident. But Coors and the independent creative agency, Rethink, did what we all hope to do in our careers—take advantage of a viral moment and have other people write about us.
Our experience in the food and beverage space taught us a lot about meshing traditional and digital strategies together. There is always the need for online promotion, either through social media, email marketing, or other forms of content creation. But the thing about food and bev that is often misunderstood is that people have specific preferences and a taproom experience or local event is a great way to get their taste buds to experience your product.
To wrap up my thoughts here, Coors hit a home run. I know, Ohtani hit a foul ball but just stick with the dumb baseball reference for a second. I love this story because it’s an opportunity well taken. It’s an excellent display of quick thinking that marketers need to have. And it’s a great example of a brand not being so stubborn and embracing a viral moment, even if it means laughing at themselves.
