More Fighting.
February 28th, 2008 by caseyLast week I wrote about Harley becoming an official sponsor of the UFC, today one of the largest marketers on the planet signed up as well, Bud Light. My boys @ MMA Junkie did a pretty good write up on the topic, give it a read. I’m a huge MMA fan and enjoy observing Millenial culture; I like the move in theory. With that said, it scares me quite a bit. Bud Light coming in and just doing traditional advertising would be a huge waste. I don’t want to see Bud Light logos all over the cage or every fighter thanking Bud Light after a win, do something cool, please. New product, new labels, new content, new something. Stream the weigh-ins on BudLight.com, have viewing codes on the buttom of beer bottles for 1-minute fight videos. I don’t know, just do something different. And please, please, please don’t try to sell a friggin’ alcho-energy drink here. This is the kind of project I’d love to work on and frankly, one that ad agencies need to be thinking about. Post some ideas here, let’s send the link to Anheuser-Busch in a few days.
Cheers to Bud Light for having the guts to do something new (even though it’s not that new) and making a play for the future. Mickey’s Malt Liquor had been a sponsor in the past, guess they got outbid.
Unrelated — quote of the week, “small businesses needs to have big cojones”. I saw it on a poster in one of Extra Bold’s windows out in Madison, WI. Maybe agencies need to embrace thinking like this. I’d say big (old) businesses need even bigger ones.
Tags: advertising, millenials, UFC, youth
March 6th, 2008 at 8:33 am
How about a piece where MMA fighters square off against the rooster from the beer commercial featuring the old martial arts master? The one where the rooster is being run through all sorts of training — flying kicks, breaking the heads off statues — and the old martial arts guy keeps imploring “Again!” That would be classic.
Maybe a spoof on Be Kind Rewind, where dork characters (like the Alltel Man Cave dudes) recreate classic MMA fights/scenes while filiming their own Bud commercial to send in to the Bud corporate office? It could be a series of commecials, culminating in an all-out championship bout between MMA legends and the dorks. Just an idea. Ignore as required.