2021 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Insights & Strategy

With only 90-calories and 3.0 carbs, Michelob Ultra stands apart from the rest of the beer category. But while its target is trying to watch what they eat and cut down on calories – 50 million people across North America are food insecure and rely on food banks to get them their next meal. Food banks, which, already straining from demand, were suddenly faced with unprecedented strain as COVID-19 hit, and more and more people were forced to rely on them for support.
As a premium-priced beer, Michelob Ultra’s fitness-obsessed target was fortunate enough to be more concerned about the closure of gyms than the supply at food banks, so it decided to create a platform that would use people’s workout selfies to provide meals to those who needed them the most.

Execution

Introducing Cal For Cal: a first-of-its-kind initiative that transformed people’s calories burned during a workout into calories of food for people in need.
The program works by tapping into a behaviour our target was already doing, tracking calories and posting workout results on social. By using the brand’s hashtag, the calories they burn during a workout are automatically donated to food banks.
To get the word out, Michelob launched the campaign on social, via influencers, and with its partners at The Running Room. It created short, eye-catching videos that depicted different workout equipment transforming into different food items to show exactly how much each workout was “worth.” Suddenly, the target could see that 36 bench presses could actually become one can of tuna for someone in need.
The company also made sure participation was as easy as possible. For anyone with a fitness app or wearable device that tracks calories, they simply had to post their workout result to social media using the brand’s hashtag. For everyone else, Michelob harnessed the power of social media by also inviting people to submit by posting a gym selfie with #CalForCal, using an AI-based calculation to estimate their calories burned and automatically included it to its total.

Results

The first launch of the program was such a success that Michelob Ultra expanded it across North America. When gyms closed, it also launched Instagram Live workouts hosted by fitness influencers – who were also largely out of work throughout COVID. All you had to do to help out your local food bank was to show up and start sweating.
To date, the campaign has had over 671 million impressions, but far more importantly, the target’s engagement resulted in over 770 million calories burned – or 385,000 meals donated for those in need.

With this new market opportunity, the brand was able to show its target that this beer is not like the others. It’s not for beer bellies – it’s actually a catalyst for motivation. And that crucial impression which it has fostered with the health-minded target has helped Michelob Ultra increase brand awareness by 3%, increase trial by 4% and increase brand meaning by 8pts to become the fastest-growing beer in the country.

Credits

Client: Michelob Ultra
VP, Marketing: Todd Allen
Director of Marketing: Natalie Lucas
Brand Manager: Julie Grant
Brand Manager: Melisa Bayrav
Community Manager: Stella Cho
Trade Marketing Manager: Jessica Sinclair
Creative Agency: FCB Canada
Chief Creative Officers: Nancy Crimi-Lamanna, Jeff Hilts
Group Creative Director: Jennifer Rossini
Associate Creative Directors: Jordan Gladman, Nimy Leshinski, Henry Park
Senior Art Director: Cody Sabatine
Senior Writer: Joseph Vernuccio
Art Director: Jerry Yang
Copywriter: Jon Dawe
Designer: Barry McLynn
MTL Copywriter: Olivier Laplante
Chief Strategy Officer: Shelley Brown
Strategy Director: Shelagh Hartford
EVP, General Manager: Tracy Little
Group Account Director: Ravi Singh
Account Director: Alex Pente
Account Executive: Chris Flynn
MTL Accounts: Elizabeth Breault, Melisa Piro
Producer: Rachel D’Ercole, Carol Boate
Project Manager: Cori Petit, Natalie Copeland
Production Company: Fuelcontent
Executive Producer: Stef Fabich
Editing House: Fuelcontent
Editor: Vanessa DiStaulo, Kelly Armstrong, Warren Goodwin
Animation House: Fuelcontent
Studio Manager: Rosanne Woodley
Production Artist: Leslie Cuoto, Yana Zinovyeva
Proofreader: Ashleigh Smith
Media Agency: Vizeum
Associate Director: Steve White
Manager: Sam Monteiro
PR Company: Veritas
Senior Account Manager: Madeleine Barker
Senior Consultant: Madeline Geddes
Consultant: Jessica Walcot
Social Media Agency: Social Code
Team Lead: Danielle DeGrandis
Associate Account Manager: Madeleine Glouner
Media Operations Manager: Anthony Castellani
Trade: Mosaic Shopper
Director, Client Services: Mandi Courteau
Account Manager: Aaron Carley