Michelob ULTRA – Evolving a brand POV

For those who are competitors on the court, but best friends in the bar.
We aim to up-the-ante, one Michelob ULTRA at a time 🍻

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The context:
Beer is facing its toughest market conditions in a decade. People across demographics are cutting back for health reasons, younger drinkers tend to prefer canned cocktails and zero-alc options over beer, and the expanded use of cannabis drinks and GLP-1s have sent sales tumbling across the category.

So what’s ‘the beer for active living’ going to do to stay relevant in times like these?

We needed to create an authentic role for ULTRA to establish it as the only beer for active occasions. Our goal was to make ULTRA the beer people reach for—exclusively—when they’re getting ready to compete. To achieve this, we positioned ULTRA as the trophy: a prize worth playing for. That’s why we brew this stuff in the first place—to celebrate active people who come together and aren’t afraid to put it all on the line.

The truth:
Friendly competition is WAY more fun when you up the ante.

The POV:
Play you for an ULTRA?

To launch this new platform, we took friendly competition to the extreme and recruited Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara to star in the greatest hustler film to every hit the Super Bowl.

“The ULTRA Hustle” landed at the top of several “best of Super Bowl LIX” lists, including Adweek, Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, and many more. It also hit #3 on the USA Today Ad Meter – a record high for the brand. And that was just the beginning.

While the category continues to struggle, Michelob ULTRA is growing. And quickly. After launching the Play You For and ULTRA campaign, Michelob ULTRA became the #1 beer in America.