Bud Light 'reintroduces' itself in back-to-basics campaign

Dive Brief:

Bud Light is reintroducing its brand to U.S. beer drinkers with two 30-second TV spots — titled "Bottle" and "Complex" — that highlight its four simple ingredients and the quality that goes into its brewing process, per a company press release.
The messaging around the new campaign is how Bud Light has sourced the highest quality barley, rice, water and hops and how its brewmasters have maintained a passion for quality and consistency over the brand's more than 35 years in operation. The "Complex" ad showcases a selection of fancier looking beverages, including a craft beer with a wedge of cheese stuck on the rim of the glass and one that looks suspiciously like swamp water, before positioning Bud Light as a simpler alternative.
The TV spots are available to watch now on YouTube, and Bud Light invited its fans to join social media conversations using @BudLight on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Dive Insight:

Parent company AB InBev hasn't gone as far as to change Bud Light's recipe, but the new campaign does highlight the brew's simplicity in a beer market that's focusing on more complex craft alternatives (depending on who you ask). By emphasizing Bud Light's four basic ingredients and their quality, the brand is tapping into a trend where younger demographics, and especially millennials, value food products that are healthier, fresher and presented with greater transparency — a predilection that's helped the craft industry boom, and possibly hurt Bud Light's share of the market.

The latest campaign, which Bud Light is calling a reintroduction, attempts to subtly criticize, albeit playfully, those same fancier drink alternatives. The stripped back nature of the ingredients is reflected in a relatively simple roll out: just two TV spots, though the release noted other "creative content" is on the way.

Even as AB InBev has snapped up a number of craft breweries for itself over the years, Bud Light has struggled to see growth while still outselling competitors stateside, according to Fox Business. Those woes have been reflected in a handful of marketing pushes that notably fizzed out.

Last year, it ditched a campaign lead by actors Amy Schumer and Seth Rogen after the effort's politically-focused humor failed to strike the right chord in a contentious election year and spur more sales. Around the same time, the company named Marcel Marcondes as its new U.S. VP of marketing.