Coors Light encourages drinkers to 'chill' with offbeat koozies

UPDATE: June 16, 2021: Miller Lite has launched the Miller Lite Relief Catcher, a baseball glove with an extended tallboy pint pocket specially designed to catch beers, per an announcement emailed to Marketing Dive. The product, created in collaboration with agency Sid Lee and the MLB's official glove manufacturer Rawlings, welcomes professional baseball back to Canada, and will be awarded to five winners through a contest hosted on a brand microsite.

Dive Brief:

Coors Light is releasing a collection of branded koozies to be used for its beer, Coors Seltzer and Coors Pure, per a press release. The "Hold My Coors" merchandise will cost between $18 and $49 and be available for purchase on Coors Light's new shopping site, along with other brand apparel.
Citing the many chaotic moments that defined the past year, Coors Light wants fans to take a load off by using the brand's new merch to hold their drinks. The koozies are suitable for a range of occasions and include a house plant beer holder, dog beer jacket, softball mitt holder, grilling apron, hoodie and beer holder for showers.
The launch is part of Coors Light's "Slow Down Summer" campaign and will be accompanied by a new 15-second spot that will run on TV and online. With its quirky merchandise, parent company Molson Coors is once again leveraging a pre-pandemic trend to excite consumers for beer-drinking moments this summer.

Dive Insight:

Coors Light is hoping to stir up excitement for a long-awaited summer full of pre-pandemic activities with a new set of branded merchandise that pairs with its line of beverages. By combining the practicality of a koozie with the silliness of anchoring that koozie to a range of sources — from dog to hoodie to house plant — the brewer is able to push a useful product while staying true to its brand voice.

The koozie collection asks fans to "chill" after a year of chaos, mostly stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. To salve people's feeling of burnout, Coors Light is framing summer as a respite. This messaging is consistent with the collection's greater campaign, "Slow Down Summer," and limited-edition packaging that features aviator sunglasses to emphasize "chill." Coors Light is also keying into optimism for the post-pandemic world, a theme that its parent company, Molson Coors, has previously employed through its other brands' marketing.

The "Hold My Beer" collection is also the first to launch on Coors Light's new shopping website. As data privacy continues to tighten amid moves by Google and Apple, sites like Coors Light's will serve an increasingly important purpose for brands looking to acquire first-party data. Miller Lite already has a website of its own, and other beer brands like Stella Artois are using microsites to acquire data through one-off campaigns.

Quirky merchandise has seen a resurgence from brands since the pandemic changed many marketing priorities. Last month, Molson Coors joined the trend when Miller Lite teamed with New Balance to release the Shoezie, a koozie modeled after New Balance's 624 Trainers, for Father's Day. Miller Lite's Relief Catcher, announced today, is another example of the beverage company using offbeat merchandise to excite consumers for the return of pre-pandemic summer activities. Coors Light's own collection sees Molson Coors leaning further into merch as a marketing strategy.