Coors Light, Tide Cleaners offer to do laundry for college football fans

Dive Brief:

To lighten the load of college football fans this season, Molson Coors brand Coors Light has teamed up with Tide Cleaners, a personal clothing washing company created by P&G detergent brand Tide, according to a press release.
Coors Light wants to help fans “keep their chores light” by inviting those in select markets to drop their dirty laundry off at a participating bar on Oct. 8 to have it cleaned by Tide Cleaners so there’s more time to enjoy the game. Additionally, the brands will be raffling off cleaning services and merchandise through Nov. 4.
The campaign amplifies Coors Light’s stance as a “chill” beer and pairs well with other recent playful sports marketing efforts from the brand. The integration may also help Tide Cleaners widen its reach to consumers following pandemic-related struggles for the industry.

Dive Insight:

Coors Light has built its brand around the idea of relaxation, and with ironing and laundry ranking as America’s fourth and fifth least favorite household chores, respectively, taking the tedious tasks off sports fans’ plates is a clever ploy to keep viewers in front of the screen.

The partnership with Tide Cleaners features a landing page that fans can visit to enter to win season-long laundry cleaning services and additional perks. As part of the campaign, participating bars in Cincinnati, Denver and Chicago will also collect patrons' dirty laundry on a Saturday in October. Saturday was chosen as not only is it a popular day for college football games, but is also reportedly the most popular day for chores, per the release. To promote the cleaning service, Coors Light enlisted brand partner and ESPN’s College GameDay analyst Kirk Herbstreit for a playful 15-second spot.

Procter & Gamble’s Tide Cleaners was formed in 2010 with just four locations. It rapidly expanded and has a heavy presence on college campuses, where students may not have the resources or time to properly clean their own clothing. Still, the dry cleaning industry was hit hard as the pandemic limited the need for such services. While the college football activation is in line with the brand’s focus on younger consumers, it could also help widen the brand’s reach and attract consumers back to the services.

Sports has repeatedly been a hard-hitting industry for brands looking to appeal to this masses, and the latest campaign isn’t Tide’s first football-related marketing ploy. In September, the brand urged fans to finally wash their lucky jerseys in a TV and social media ad campaign. Coors Light also has a history of college sport activations, such as releasing a beer-flavored lollipop in time for March Madness in order to calm down anxious fans and often creates novelty items centered around popular happenings.