Dive Brief:
- Mike's Hard Lemonade rolled out a new, digital-first campaign that uses bubbly humor and weird internet culture to target millennial males aged 25 to 29, per a company news release.
- "Drink on the bright side" was created by Havas Chicago's The Annex agency, with surreal content and animations designed to generate laughter and smiles. The concept is a shift away from the brand's previous creative strategy of depicting experiences where consumers would want one of the brand's drinks to instead trying to recreate the emotions felt when drinking Mike's, namely happiness.
- The campaign includes a series of digital pre-roll video spots, linear TV spots and a social media push. Digital ads will run on YouTube and Hulu; TV ads on Comedy Central, Viceland, Fox Sports and FX; and specialized social media content on Imgur and Snapchat, as well as audio plugs and banner ads on Spotify.
Dive Insight:
In order to reach a key millennial demographic, Mike's is honing in on a nontraditional, digital-heavy approach, which it noted drove 12% growth in U.S. consumption last year, beating general stagnation in its beverage category. The brewer has been making continued investments in social, experiential and retail channels in hopes this marketing pivot expands its customer base, the news release said.
Taking a digital-first approach, on popular platforms like YouTube but also Snapchat and Spotify, should help Mike's engage its intended target audience. The messaging focus on emotions and happiness, in particular, comes as more consumers might be desiring positive emotional resonance in their marketing, especially as an escape from sharply divided political and societal realities.
Other elements of the campaign include a partnership with Receptiv’s PopKey that allows fans to share GIFs via an installed mobile keyboard app, and Emogi will design stickers for messaging apps like iMessage. Mike's also created a dedicated website with the help of Havas' Helia, and the effort includes a "Happy Camper" mobile sampling tour with a custom-wrapped yellow trailer.
