Dive Brief:

• Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer launched a campaign to promote a taste test challenge of competitors' beverages. The Anheuser-Busch brand asked consumers to take a polygraph about which hard seltzer they prefer, with the chance to win $1,000, according to a company press release.
• Fifty people aged 25-39 took the polygraph test, and 46 participants said they prefer Bon & Viv's Classic beverage over rival White Claw Pure, or said they like White Claw better and failed the polygraph. Just four people that said they prefer White Claw Pure passed the polygraph.
• The company shared a playful video featuring the polygraph contest as part of the campaign. "Tasting is believing, so we invite you to take the #SeltzerShowdown for yourself and tell us what you think," Chelsea Phillips, VP of Beyond Beer Brands at Anheuser-Busch, said in a statement.

Dive Insight:

With its latest campaign, Bon & Viv is updating a tried-and-true tactic — a consumer taste test, like the long-running Pepsi challenge — for the burgeoning hard seltzer market. The humorous use of a polygraph test in a 90-second video and the #SeltzerShowdown hashtag could help to spark a conversation around the contest on social media.

The #SeltzerShowdown push continues Bon & Viv's yearlong marketing efforts. After running its first Super Bowl ad, the AB InBev brand released another playful video on Instagram, calling for a ban on basic vodka sodas. The idea was to convert millennial women from "basic" vodka soda drinkers to "better basic" spiked seltzer drinkers.

Overall, AB InBev has increased messaging to reach millennial women, whose beverage preferences have moved away from legacy beers. As beer sales continue to slide, the beverage giant needs to market products to consumers that are increasingly choosing wine, liquor and "ready to drink" (RTD) products like Bon & Viv. The #SeltzerShowdown initiative moves the Bon & Viv marketing away from its millennial women target to a larger audience of drinkers.

AB InBev's hard seltzer push comes as White Claw saw its sales grow 283% year-over-year in July to $327 million, per CNN. Meanwhile, Boston Beer Company's Truly Hard Seltzer brand took swipes at beer, wine and spirits in a new national advertising campaign that stars actor Keegan-Michael Key.