Brief:

• Anheuser-Busch InBev's Natural Light this year is offering free beer to anyone who turns 21 by rebating their purchase at a website. Customers can submit a scanned image of their purchase receipt to prove they're old enough to claim the free beer, per information shared with Mobile Marketer.
• Natural Light this year is also urging anyone over 21 to share pictures of their 21st birthday celebration on social media.
• People who caption their pictures with the #NattyBDay hashtag and the @naturallightbeer account on Instagram, or @naturallight on Twitter, have a chance to see their pictures reposted on Natural Light's accounts on the 21st day of each month this year.

Insight:

Natural Light's yearlong social media campaign aims to connect with people who have reached legal drinking age and are in the early stages of forming their preferences for alcoholic beverages. By offering rebates on Natural Light purchases, the brand can gather email addresses from consumers for future promotions and learn more about the purchase habits of Generation Z, which tends to drink less alcohol than older generations did at the same age because of health concerns, as reported by Business Insider.

Natural Light has ramped up its social media promotions in the past few years to reach young adults who tend to rely on their smartphones as the primary way to connect online and consume content. In a trolling campaign targeting rival Miller Lite in October, Natural Light offered free beer to shoppers who could demonstrate they had stopped following Miller Lite on social media. The campaign was in response to Miller Lite's offer of free beer to anyone who could prove they had "unfollowed" its own social media accounts as a means to show how people connect in real life over a Miller Lite.

Beer brands face a growing rivalry with hard seltzers, a category that last year surged in popularity with breakout brands like White Claw. Its sales soared 283% to $327.7 million in July from a year earlier, making up more than half of the hard seltzer market, per data from Nielsen cited by CNN. In response, Natural Light extended its brand into the category with the release of its own hard seltzers. Sister brand Bud Light next week will introduce its own hard seltzer to compete with White Claw, Fox Business reported. Anheuser-Bush will advertise the brand extension during this year's Super Bowl on Feb. 2.