Making The Most Of A Viral And Supernatural Event
At times, social media can be seen as an unstoppable force, producing an endless amount of material for entertainment. In this case, a Facebook event was part of that unstoppable force. The creation of Bud Light’s newest “packaging” starts with a comedic interpretation of curiosity. The Facebook event titled: “Storm Area 51” was created as a joke on June 26th by three users, not expecting to gain rapid popularity.
Nobody really thought it would gain traction or that people would take it seriously, but the event spread like wildfire. As of today, 1.5 million people have RSVP'd as “going.” In addition, countless memes have been produced and shared to show the satire of breaking into Area 51 and observing aliens. In this blog, Hollywood Branded discusses how Bud Light quickly responded to the viral Area 51 raid with a tweet and new Twitter mascot.
Aliens or Bust
What started out as a satirical event to inspire the creation of memes and produce a few laughs led to Bud Light using the event as a tool for recognition on Twitter. Time after time, sarcasm and satire have proven to be useful tools for internet success. Evidently, Bud Light chose to use the mentioned tools in order to produce effective tweets. Bud Light’s goal was simple: Include their beer in a popular, relevant internet fad.
After the revival of interest in Area 51 aliens, Bud Light took a unique approach. At first, they decided to imply they disapproved of the raid by tweeting: “We’d like to be the first brand to formally announce that we will not be sponsoring the Area 51 raid.” Why would Bud Light choose to disapprove of an idea that would later become the main focus of future, successful tweets? The answer involves: gaining an unexpected reaction from the audience after back-tracking and criticizing yourself.
Although common for major companies to use the internet’s most sensational subject to reach its audience, Bud Light chose to stand out by giving Twitter users exiting, contradicting content. Bud Light knows their online audience and predicted the combination of beers and aliens would be successful for them.
Bud Light’s Twitter Presence
After tweeting about the current internet craze, Bud Light received the best responses from Twitter users in a while. Bud Light was successful in incorporating their brand with a funny subject, resulting in Bud Light getting the spotlight from Twitter and other social media platforms.
Before tweeting about creatures from out of this world, the average amount of retweets Bud Light would receive on their tweets ranged from 50 to a few hundred. Their most recent tweet, showing their new “packaging,” has a shocking 36,000 retweets and nearly 60,000 likes.
It seems aliens are even more popular than celebrities to Bud Light’s audience. For example, a recent tweet from Bud Light showing American singer, Post Malone, drinking their beer received a little less than three thousand retweets. Compared to their last alien tweet receiving 36 thousand retweets, one can question what makes or breaks the content of a tweet.
Although retweets are not necessarily an indicator of how financially well a company is doing, they are definitely a reflection of online presence. Incorporating silly content with a recognized brand proved to be successful. One can say Bud Light was effective because they chose a non-serious topic that is very likable. It's not likely to bring about some sort of scandal.
Proving They Aren't A One Trick Pony
In the past, Bud Light has used emotional pull with their ad campaigns, having them pull on your hearts strings in one way or another. For example, Bud Light tends to touch on serious subjects for Super Bowl commercials. In 2019, their memorable clydesdale commercial made for misty-eyed viewers at Super Bowl parties around America. The commercial starts with a rancher nursing a newborn clydesdale. After a few years, the clydesdale is grown and there seems to be a unique bond with the man and horse. Eventually, the rancher sells the horse, despite their close relationship. Fast forward a few years later, the rancher sees, in a newspaper, that Bud Light will display their Clydesdales in a parade. The rancher drives to the parade, and briefly sees his old horse during the parade. It is clear the horse recognizes him as well, resulting in the horse running towards him to embrace him. The man and horse share a moment together after years of lost contact.
Although we love the cute puppies and horses, Bud Light's light hearted campaigns have been successful and talked about. Most notably, the cultural movement of the phrase "Dilly, Dilly!" from their Game of Thrones themed Super Bowl commercial.
Bud Light proves that you don't have to be on one end of the emotional spectrum with your ads to be successful. It's great to see a brand with a variety of successful ad campaigns, whether by pulling on your heart or making you say "Dilly, Dilly!" every time you drank a beer. Either way - they're being talked about positively and going viral, and that's just about the best you can ask for in marketing.
Learn More About Successful Marketing!
If you are interested in learning more about digital marketing, we have a lot more great content for you! Check out these blog articles our team wrote:
- Twitter to Enter Digital Content Marketing
- 4 Case Studies of Real-Time Viral Marketing Responses
- Twitter Advertising: The Paid AD Tweet Versus The Celebrity Tweet
- Twitter's New Rules:The Social Media Giant Broadens Appeal
- How Brands Are Making a Digital Impact at the 2018 World Cup
Bud Light's marketing team is definitely doing something right. If you're an influencer or in entertainment, we want to help make your marketing team just as successful! Check out our library of influencer and entertainment marketing below.
