For Miller, sports sponsorship begins at home

Transcription

Miller Brewing Co.
S P E C I A L A D V E R T I S I N G S E C T I O N / C E L E B R AT I N G O N E O F S P O R T S ’ T O P S P O N S O R S
Frederick J. Miller founded what was to become the Miller
Brewing Company in 1855 with the purchase of a defunct brewery,
the Plank Road Brewery for a little more than $2,000.
Chicago Bulls
Miller and Sports:
A championship team
Phildelphia Eagles
Miller Brewing Co.
In the late 19th century there were no fewer than 4,000 breweries in
the United States. The Miller Brewing Company, founded in 1855, was
just one of them. How this once small regional brewer navigated the
shifting currents of the beer business over 150 years to become the second largest brewer in America and the eighth largest in the world is a
story replete with good fortune, brilliant strategies and an adherence to
a single message …”quality.”
The Miller name is prominent wherever sports are played, in the arena,
on the track and in the stadium.
SEPTEMBER 5-11, 2005
In 1855, Frederick J. Miller, the founder of Miller
Brewing, bought a defunct plant, The Plank Road
Brewery, from the Best family, the founders of Pabst.
Beer brewing was a thriving industry in
Milwaukee mainly due to its location. The
city was far enough north to allow for
the harvesting of ice throughout the
winter that could be packed in sawdust to last the summer. This made
year-round brewing possible. As a
result, Germans, the master brewers of
Europe, flocked to Milwaukee. In the late
1800s Milwaukee became a German cultural
center, and although brewing was a very local
business throughout America at the time, Milwaukee
gained a reputation for making the best.
The growing popularity of beer throughout the
STREET & SMITH’S SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL
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country, the invention of mechanical means of refrigeration and the advent of railroad travel enabled
brewers to range far beyond their local roots.
This broader distribution gave rise to the
Milwaukee “Beer Barons” – Fredric Pabst,
Joseph Schlitz, Val Blatz, Franz Falk and
Frederick J. Miller.
Frederick J.Miller died in 1888
leaving the company to his children,
who variously served in company offices
throughout the early part of the 20th
century. It was the second generation of
Miller family ownership that branded Miller
“The Champagne of Bottled Beers” and grew
the business on this flagship brand.
The company managed to survive a wave of “antiGerman” sentiment during the first World War.
WWW.SPORTSBUSINESSJOURNAL.COM
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Miller Brewing Co.
Frederick C. Miller, the third generation
of family leadership launched Miller into
modern-day sports sponsorship.
team to the city. His first attempt to woo
the St. Louis Browns failed. They moved to
Baltimore instead and became the modernday Orioles. But, in 1953 he persuaded the
owners of the Boston Braves to move their
team to Milwaukee. The move put Miller
into the national baseball conversation, and
the scoreboard for the new team donated
by Miller Brewing became a huge High
Life billboard dominating the fans’ view.
In what may have been one of the first
examples of grass-roots sports marketing,
Miller hired sports stars, such as Elroy
Hirsch and Henry Aaron, to visit community meetings to show filmed highlights of
the previous baseball season.
The post-war years had been good
to Miller and it resulted in astounding increases in sales. In the years from
1946 to 1952 the company sped by its
competition going, from the 21st largest brewery in the country in 1947 to the
fifth largest in 1952. Miller approached
its 100th birthday on an upbeat note,
creating museums to honor its founder,
initiating an expansive building program to
increase capacity and even commissioning
a Hollywood budget-level movie, “With this
Ring,” celebrating the life and accomplishments of its founder, Frederick J. Miller.
The celebration was marred by the
death of the charismatic post-war
leader, Frederick, in an airplane crash in
December 1954. The company absorbed
the shock and moved forward into the new
expansive era of television, sponsoring
sports of every kind and, for the first time,
launching a sporting event of its own, the
Miller High Life Open, which was a part of
the centennial celebration. Cary Middlecoff
won the first tournament.
Throughout the mid 50s and 60s, the
company continued apace, but the Miller
family, once the primary governing group,
began to take less and less of a role in the
day-to-day operations of the enterprise.
In 1969, the company was sold to the
international giant Philip Morris and, with
the sale, the Miller Brewing Company
entered its modern era driven by product
innovation and ground-breaking marketing.
The most valuable asset Philip Morris
brought to Miller was its experience and
track record in mass marketing exemplified by the Marlboro Man campaign. The
new regime quickly set out to change the
product positioning that had defined Miller
from its inception. “The Champagne of
Bottled Beers” had worked to position
Miller as a quality brand apart from the
Miller Brewing Co.
After prohibition was repealed in 1933,
Miller prospered through the depression
years of the 30s and was a vital business
through the World War II era. Following
the war, it was time for the third generation of Millers to take the reigns of the
company. And, fortunately for the company,
the third generation produced possibly the
most outstanding leader of the company to
date, Frederick C. Miller. He was an outstanding collegiate athlete playing football
at Notre Dame under the legendary Knute
Rockne and was elected captain of the
team his senior year. Sports remained an
important part of his life and an integral
part of Miller marketing during his tenure.
It was Fred who moved the company
aggressively toward sports sponsorship
including teams in Miller’s home region –
the then minor league Milwaukee Brewers
and the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. In the
early 50s he put Miller’s sports sponsorships on a national footing with partnerships with local distributors to sponsor the
New York Football Giants, the Philadelphia
Eagles and the Los Angeles Rams.
But, Fred Miller’s involvement in sport
went far beyond simple sponsorship. He
participated as a coach and advisor with
Notre Dame football and Green Bay well
into his middle years. In 1951 he launched
a pro basketball franchise, the Milwaukee
Hawks, in his home town but the venture
was short lived.
Baseball garnered his interest more
than any other sport. As a civic leader
in Milwaukee, he set out to bring a MLB
Miller has been an early and consistent supporter of sports in its home territory from the Green Bay Packers to the then Minor League Brewers to hosting pro golf in Milwaukee.
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Tampa Bay
rest. But, the new owners had also found
that it had given Miller an elite status.
Customers thought of Miller as a beer
they might drink infrequently – a brew for
special occasions. Philip Morris wanted to
reposition the brand as a beer you could
drink every day. They introduced the new
campaign, “Miller Time” on the strength of
a new jingle “If you’ve got the time, we’ve
got the beer.” The slogan was an immediate success. Now instead of being a beer
for those once-in-a-while occasions, it was
a beer you drank every day as a reward
for hard work. Although the advertising
creative was a success and considerable
media spending supported the campaign,
sales didn’t immediately follow. It wasn’t
until 1973 that Miller turned the corner on
sales and racked up an impressive string of
annual double-digit increases. From 1969
to 1975 the company made bold
moves in the beer market again,
going from the seventh ranked
brewery in 1969 to the fourth
place in those seven years.
Chicagoland Speedway
(federal law dictated
that active athletes could not
be used), Miller made light beer
a palatable choice for the core market segment of beer drinkers. Over the
next eight years, the campaign featured a
cast of America’s male culture favorites
from ex-athletes like Bubba Smith and
Dick Butkus to detective novelist Mickey
Spillane and “woe is me” comic Rodney
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Dangerfield. The mock battle engaged
by the actors shouting “Tastes Great
... Less Filling” entered into the lexicon
of American popular culture. Recently,
Advertising Age ranked the campaign the
eighth best ever created and the best beer
campaign ever.
The success of the introduction was
not all good news. The demand for Miller
Lite was so immediate and so great that
the company had instant supply problems.
Miller’s production went on a 7-day, 24hour schedule to meet demand. In two
years, propelled by the sale of its new
“Lite” brand, Miller barrel sales doubled.
The growth of the company through the
70s had been extraordinary, but Miller and
all brewers in America were about to enter
a period of slow to no growth that called
for new and more innovative strategies
to keep the company a leader in
American brewing.
The 80s and
early 90s ushered in an
era of
product
differentiation
as brewers fought
to carve up
larger and larger slices of the stagnant
beer market pie.
In the 90s the age of differentiation
came to an end at Miller. The ledgers
showed that slicing the beer market pie
into smaller and smaller segments was now
Miller Brewing Co.
The Miller name is a common site at sports
venues throughout the U.S.
The beer that changed beer marketing
The 1970s ushered in an era of
greater awareness of adult health, smoking began to decline, jogging was in and
more so than ever men and women in their
20s, 30s and 40s began taking better care
of themselves and counting their calorie
intake. This new attitude among adults of
beer drinking age was a challenge to the
beer industry, and no one seemed to have
a good answer. Lower calorie beers existed,
but they weren’t very highly rated for taste,
and they were generally marketed as a diet
product. – not a very good position for
reaching the mass beer audience, especially
men. Miller purchased a light beer in 1973
when it took over the bankrupt, Chicagobased brewer Meister Brau, Inc. The beer
lacked the taste to be a part of the Miller
family of brands, so the then CEO of the
company, John Murphy, initiated a project
to reformulate the beer to see if the Miller
chemists couldn’t bring it up to Miller
standards.
After market testing and another breakthrough campaign created by McCannErickson, the brand was introduced in
1975 using retired Jets running back, Matt
Schell speaking the line, “All you wanted in
a beer. And less.” Using retired athletes
Team continued on page 45.
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Miller’s special history with motorsports
Miller’s history in auto racing dates
back over 30 years to their first sponsorship of a NASCAR race at Ontario Motor
Speedway in 1971. The first-ever Miller
High Life 500 was won by A.J. Foyt driving a car fielded by the Wood brothers.
Miller one of the most recognizable brands
at the race track.
Of all of the race teams that Miller has
sponsored however, perhaps the most visible has been the 15-year tenure as the
primary sponsor for Rusty Wallace. That
relationship is currently the longest continuous primary sponsorship on the Nextel
circuit. Miller has done much to support
Rusty’s career in NASCAR,
and Wallace
as well. Wallace’s outgoing, energetic
and good-times persona has been a perfect match for Miller in positioning their
brands. In 1996, Miller switched logos on
the hood from Genuine Draft to their Lite
brand, but the corporate support has been
seamless.
Radiate Sports Group President Steve
Lauletta sums up what the sponsorship
has meant to the company and for Wallace
and NASCAR, “Miller’s affiliation with
Penske Racing and particularly Rusty
Wallace – for being the longest running
primary sponsor and team-driver combination in the sport today – is what any
company involved in NASCAR would long
for. It’s equity for the brand, it’s equity for
Miller and for Rusty, and it cements in the
NASCAR fans’ minds that Miller is a supporter of one of the legends of the sport.
And, in exchange, his fans and NASCAR
fans support Miller.”
Going out with a bang –
Rusty’s Last Call
The Miller
name is known to race fans
of all stripes.
Congratulations to
the beer for all seasons.
Ha p py 1 5 0 t h An n i v e r s a r y t o Mi l l e r B re w i n g C o m p a n y.
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All photos this page, Miller Brewing Co.
has returned the favor by bringing home
more than 35 victories for Miller over the
past 16 years and compiling a record of
In 1983, the company’s investment in racconsistency that is the envy of the Nextel
ing had grown to such a level that the comcircuit. While under the Miller sponsorpany established
ship, Wallace reached a record 16 straight
a national motorsports sponsorship
seasons with at least one victory and had a
program that served to coordinate all of
10-year streak of finishing in the top 10 in
their racing sponsorships across the various
points.
series.
Rusty Wallace began his association
That presence included teams in
with
Miller in 1990, featuring the logo
NASCAR, open wheel, drag racing, off
for
Miller
Genuine Draft on the hood of
road and hydroplanes, featuring a who’s
his
racecar.
In 1991 he moved to Penske
who of American drivers including A.J.
Racing South carrying the sponsorship
Foyt, Al Unser, Bobby Allison, Roger
with him and has remained with Penske
Mears, Robert Guerrero, Bobby Rahal and
ever since.
Larry Dixon,
With Wallace
to name a
behind
the
few.
wheel,
Miller
Miller’s
chose a winmotorsports
ning partner.
sponsorships
Not only
have earned
has he been
over a dozen
a dominant
series champresence on
pionships
the NASCAR
and innumercircuit on the
able wins
track, but
Miller
primary
sponsorship
status
with
Rusty
Wallace
is
the
over the years
off
the track
longest
on
the
Nextel
Circuit,
dating
back
to
1990.
and made
Although Wallace’s long association is
autograph was six blocks long for hours
coming to an end, he does
and was easily the mostnot intend to go out with
attended attraction.
a whimper. Farewell tours
In addition, Wallace’s
are not a new phenomenon
departure from the circuit is
in NASCAR – Petty had
expected to move anywhere
one, so did Darryl Waltrip
from $15 million to $20 mil– but Rusty Wallace’s final
lion in sales of “Last Call”
campaign may set records.
commemoratives, including
Blessed by a competitive racdie-cast models and other
ing team, a strong sponsor
memorabilia.
and still-strong profile with
Even so, the demands and
NASCAR fans nurtured over
all of the distractions of the
more than two decades of
tour haven’t seemed to slow
high-performance racing, the
Wallace down. Going into
Wallace-Miller program has
Under Miller’s sponshorships, the final month of racing
all the elements in place to
Rusty has visited the winner’s before NASCAR selects the
circle dozens of times. top teams to compete in the
set the standard for final farewells.
Chase for the Nextel Cup,
Appropriately titled “Rusty’s Last
which takes place over the final 10 races
Call,” the tour will include the usual atof the season, Wallace is comfortably in
track activity and plenty of appearances
the top 10 in points, staying in the top
away from the track. His 20-city schedfive for most of the summer. That means
ule for the year includes stops in such
that Wallace, in his 25th year of racing in
non-NASCAR major markets as Seattle,
NASCAR’s most elite circuit, will be conDenver and Minneapolis. Crowds at his
tending for the championship. Quite a feat
farewell appearances have been averaging
for any sports enterprise.
in the thousands. At the 2005 Fan Fest in
With all of these factors in place, in
Charlotte, NC, held during the two weeks
true Miller style, the team of Millerfeaturing the All-Star Race and CocaWallace is taking the NASCAR farewell
Cola 600, the line of fans waiting for his
tour to a whole new level.
The beer had all of the shortcomings of the category:
bland in taste and image. Miller set out to re-make the
formula adding more taste to the beer and to re-brand
their new beer to appeal to both the joggers and the traditional beer-drinking base.
The project was given to McCann Erickson and the
solution made history. To get across the low-calorie benefits of its new Lite brand and preserve the good times
male image of Miller, McCann developed a campaign
using well-known retired athletes (Federal law prohibited
the use of active players) to promote their new product
with the tagline “All you ever wanted in a beer, and less.”
The first ad featured retired Jet running back, Matt Snell.
“You make one Lite commercial, it’s like then
everyone forgets that you played ball for 20
years.”
– Baltimore Orioles third baseman
Boog Powell
Twenty-seven of the 40 sports stars and celebrities who appeared in the classic ad campaign for Miller
Lite posed for this group photo celebrating the campaign. Can you name them all?
The greatest beer ad
campaign ever
In the late 1960s and early 70s two demographic
and cultural waves collided, presenting the beer industry
with the biggest opportunity and biggest challenge of
the post-war era. This was a unique opportunity because
it was the era when the great demographic swell — the
baby boom — began coming of age, bringing millions of
new beer drinkers to the market. A challenge because
they were very unlike their parents and not likely to
respond to beer marketing as previous generations had.
It was the age of jogging, aerobics and workout videos. Beer, for all its other virtues, was not synonymous
with this new emphasis on working out and staying
trim. For a generation that was counting its calories like
never before, the image of beer needed some tweaking.
The solution might have seemed simple at first: just
introduce a low-calorie brand for the “workout” set.
But, there were real problems with that strategy. One,
in the early 70s no light beer brand existed that could
boast lower calories along with good taste. And, two,
the positioning of light beers had been directed mainly
toward women as an aid to dieting and had little appeal
to Miller’s core customers – men.
Miller Brewing and the McCann-Erickson ad agency
changed all that. In 1972, Miller bought out the assets
of a failing Chicago brewer, Meister Brau, which had as
one of its brands a light version of their flagship brew.
Over the years, pro greats like Oakland’s Ben Davidson
and Coach John Madden, LA Rams’ Rosie Greer, Green
Bay’s Ray Nitchke and Yankees’ Whitey Ford and Mickey
Mantle all appeared in spots. The campaign featured in
all 40 celebrity presenters, including non-athlete male
icons like detective novel author Mickey Spillane and
comic Rodney Dangerfield.
But it wasn’t until 1975 two years into the campaign,
that the tag line that would define the effort made its
debut. A spot featuring the bombastic coach of the
Boston Celtics, Tommy Hiensohn and NBA referee Mendy
Rudolph was the first to feature the “Tastes Great…Less
Filling” standoff ending with Mendy ejecting Tommy from
the bar.
The commercials gave many of its stars a second
career and in many cases made them more famous than
they had been as players. As Baltimore Oriole third baseman Boog Powell remarked, “You make one Lite commercial, it’s like then everyone forgets that you played
ball for 20 years.”
In all, the campaign featured more than 80 commercials and ran for a decade. In a recent feature,
Advertising Age named the Miller Lite series the eighth
greatest advertising campaign ever created and the best
beer campaign ever.
But the real proof of its greatness is in the sales it created. Between 1973 and 1978 Miller sales exploded from
just under seven million barrels a year to over 31 million—the most dramatic period of expansion in sales ever
recorded by a beer maker.
THE MILWAUKEE BUCKS
CONGRATULATE
MILLER BREWING
ON ITS 150th YEAR
IN BUSINESS.
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We’re lucky to have you as a partner.
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Ron Vesely, Chicago White Sox
Chicago Bears
Philade;phia Eagles
From the earliest days,
Chicago and Philadelphia
sports venues have been
important players in Miller
marketing.
delivering diminishing returns. As a result,
Miller went back to focusing on its core
brands. To support Miller Lite the company
invested heavily in motorsports to build
the brand’s profile among traditional blue
collar customers. With slogans like “Life
is Good” and “Made the American Way,”
Miller Lite rebuilt its name with the company’s core customer base. In NASCAR,
Miller became the primary sponsor for
Rusty Wallace in 1991. The 1984 Rookie
of the Year was in his peak years of winning, and his affable personality and good
times demeanor gave the brewer the image
it wanted to project to this large and
important audience.
On the home front, the company stepped
up again in 1996 to buy the naming rights
to a new home for the Milwaukee Brewers,
paying $41.2 million for a 20-year run as
the park’s namesake.
The Philip Morris era ended in 2002
with the purchase of the company by SAB
for $5.6 billion. The defunct brewery that
Frederick J. Miller had bought in 1855 for
$2,100 had indeed come far. It had done
so by understanding each era of the beer
business and making the right strategic
moves to keep the company in a leadership
position. This latest move is in line with
that history. With its alliance with SAB,
Miller takes a leadership position in the
new global economy with a roster of no
fewer than 140 brands and the ability to
distribute in more than 100 countries.
In the domestic market, the company’s
new owners showed an early and impressive grasp of the U.S. market, setting out a
strategy to reinforce the “taste” advantage
of the Miller core brands. Their innovative “Good Call” campaign has set off a
very visible and entertaining creative war
between Miller and its perennial first place
competitor, Anheuser Busch. This is a war
that in addition to producing memorable
television commercials will no doubt continue the company’s role as a major player
in the world of sports sponsorship.
Team continued from page 42.
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Green Bay Packers
For Miller, sports sponsorship begins at home
Before the age of mechanical refrigeration and rail transport, Miller Brewing, like
all breweries, was a local business. Modern
technology and transportation changed all
that, but the company has steadfastly supported local sports. Miller was one of the
first sponsors of the Green Bay Packers.
Under the leadership of Frederick C. Miller,
the third generation Miller heir who led
the company in the early post-war period,
the company was instrumental in bringing
major league baseball to Milwaukee.
As a two-time All-American tackle at
Notre Dame University and fervent backer
of their football program, Fred Miller was
a very strong supporter of many sports.
In addition to his efforts to bring major
league baseball to Milwaukee, he also was
the major backer of an early pro basketball franchise – the Milwaukee Hawks. The
Hawks, however, unlike the Packers and the
Brewers, did not take seed in Fred Miller’s
time but folded only few years after their
opening season. The basketball presence
was re-established with the Milwaukee
Bucks and Miller has had a dominant role
since its debut.
Fred Miller’s intense interest in sports
was well recognized in the Milwaukee
community: He was a member of the
(Milwaukee County) Stadium Committee
of the Greater Milwaukee Committee for
Community Development. He helped to
have the stadium built to major league
specifications by reminding officials that a
MLB franchise was possible in Milwaukee.
Fred Miller also served at least two terms
as chairman of the Sports Committee of
the Milwaukee Association of Commerce,
which sought to promote Milwaukee sports.
In 1950 the Miller Brewing Company
erected a billboard calling attention to
the site of the proposed stadium. Miller
Brewing Company also donated the scoreboard for the stadium and signed a seven-
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year stadium advertising agreement with
the county. In a July 23, 1952, letter to the
Milwaukee County Park Commission, Fred
Miller stated, “It is our feeling that in the
construction of the new stadium you have
taken a tremendous step toward helping
Milwaukee achieve a major league position in the field of sports. For many years,
our policy has been to help our community
attain this position. Our support of the
Milwaukee Brewers in baseball, the Green
Bay Packers in football, and the Milwaukee
Hawks in basketball, is open evidence in
what we have been doing.”
Fred Miller played a significant role in
the actual move of the Boston Braves into
Milwaukee County Stadium. The Milwaukee
Journal reported that Miller arranged a
special meeting of the Milwaukee County
Park Commission that made the arrangements concerning the franchise shift. Look
Magazine, a national features-article publication, wrote that Fred Miller was the
“spark plug” that brought the Braves to
Milwaukee.
The Braves’ first home game was
against the St. Louis Cardinals, whose new
owner was Anheuser-Busch. The Braves
won. In addition to sponsoring the Braves
broadcasts, the Miller Brewing Company
engaged in other grass-roots promotions
related to the team. It hired a number of
Braves as representatives to promote Miller
in the off-season. In February 1954, these
included Braves pitcher Lew Burdette and
outfielders Andy Pafko and Bill Bruton. By
1957 Henry Aaron was also a Miller sports
representative.
After Frederick C. Miller died tragically
in a plane crash in 1954, a Frederick C.
Miller Athletes Award was established in
1955. However, Miller Brewing’s support
of Wisconsin sports continued on after his
demise. That support was evidenced most
recently by the $41.2 million naming rights
purchase of Miller Park, the home of the
Brewers, which opened in 2001. Miller
further celebrated the event by issuing a
commemorative Miller High Life Package.
Even as this local brewer has grown into
a multi-national enterprise, it has always
held to the idea that sports sponsorship
begins at home.
Significant dates in Miller’s past 150 years
1855
German immigrant Frederick J.
Miller leases the defunct Plank
Road Brewery in Milwaukee and
brews his first beer. The next
year Miller buys the brewery
and land for $2,370.
1879
Miller introduces its first bottled
beer.
1888
Founder Frederick Miller dies.
Eldest son Ernest becomes
president.
1903
Miller introduces what is to
become its core brand High
Life and the tagline: “The
Champagne of Bottled Beers.”
1919
Prohibition becomes law, Miller
switches production to nonalcoholic beverages and makes
extensive investments in real
estate and government securities, but fortunately, not the
stock market.
1933
Prohibition ends. Miller sends
a case of High Life to President
Roosevelt and returns to
production.
1947
The charismatic grandson of
the founder, Frederick C. Miller,
becomes president. A former
football player at Notre Dame
under Knute Rockne, Miller
aggressively incorporates sports
into its marketing mix.
1948
Sales top one million barrels for
the first time.
1950
Miller, once a regional upperMidwest brewer, achieves distribution in 48 states.
1954
Frederick C. Miller and his son
die in a plane crash.
1968
Miller grows to be the eighth
largest brewer in the country
1969
Philip Morris buys Miller brewing for over $200 million.
1971
The “Miller Time” campaign is
launched.
1972
Miller buys Meister Brau, Inc,
bringing a “lite” beer into their
brand family.
1975
A reformulated “lite” beer gets
a national launch with the tag
line “All the Beer You Ever
Wanted, and Less.”
1975
The first “Tastes Great... Less
Filling” commercial airs with
the volatile Boston Celtic coach
Tommy Heinsohn and NBA official Mendy Rudolph. The series
becomes an advertising classic.
1977
Miller sells 24.2 million barrels
and rises to second place among
America’s brewers.
1992
Light beer becomes the most
popular beer category.
2002
South African Breweries PLC
buys Miller for $5.6 billion
2004
Miller Lite is the fastest growing beer in the United States.
Up 10.5%, Miller’s share of the
beer market increases by 0.1
points.
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48
SportPics
Philadelphia Eagles
Chicagoland Speedway
Through activations like those at Chicagoland Speedway (left), Green Bay’s Lambeau Field (center) and Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field (right), Miller Brewing Co. builds its social personality.
Strategy, homework drive Miller’s activations
Financial Field gate, is an enormous tent
that provides a sports bar-like atmosphere,
complete with televisions showing action
from other games as well as being equipped
with video game hook-ups. The Eagles keep
the tent open until halftime and always
make sure to have a legend from the team’s
past as well as cheerleaders on hand for
autographs.
“The Miller Lite Tailgate Zone represents
an example of how our two organizations
understand each other’s objectives and
create a place that has become an integral
part of the game day experience,” said
Eagles Senior Vice President, Business
Operations Mark Donovan.
A similar sports bar-like atmosphere,
called the Miller Lite End Zone, exists
in the north end zone of Green Bay’s
Lambeau Field. Fans can either stand or
sit in chairs along rails in this area, which
delivers a variety of promotional events.
The capacity in the Miller Lite End Zone is
about 300, and guests can only enter with
credentials, which are passed out around
the state of Wisconsin through Miller distributors.
“This is a highly visible area. Fans take
note of the space and are always asking
how do I take part in that?” said Packer
Director of Marketing Craig Benzel. “We’re
really excited about how popular the area
has become and how sought after the credentials have become.”
Naturally, Miller has a tremendous presence in Milwaukee with the Brewers and
Bucks. In addition to the naming rights deal
for the Brewer’s Miller Stadium, the brand
activates through the Miller Lite Beer Pen,
an area in the right-field bleachers for fans
21 and over. For $10, fans can enter the
pen and receive a T-shirt. Inside, there are
promotions and games. Brewers Executive
Vice President/Business Operations Rick
Schlesinger said the pen sells out every
Friday night, is a big hit with fans ages 2131 and has “turned into an area that has
49
LA Lakers
The goal at Miller Brewing Co. has
always been to find ways to differentiate its
brands. And sports offer an ideal platform
to reach that goal. For Miller, deciding on
a sponsorship deal is about thinking and
strategizing, not reacting. It’s about doing
the proper homework and making sure each
deal is a good fit.
Miller is very active in the sports sponsorship world, but a closer look shows that
each deal is being activated in a unique
way, a way that is pertinent and fun for the
hometown fans while always tying back to
the brand. Through these unique sponsorships, Miller becomes a part of the gameday event, captures a piece of the fans’
passion and further entrenches itself as a
leader in the industry.
“The basic idea is that we want to
enhance our brands’ appeal to our audience,” said Miller Manager of Event
Marketing Rich Reider. “The old-fashioned
traditional sponsorship is not the best way
to do that anymore. What we’re trying to
do is find our space and to create a destination place. We want to find a niche that
we can call all our own.”
Miller works closely with GMR
Marketing, a member of The Radiate Group,
to find that niche for each market, build it
and expand on it. The concept and execution
has been extremely effective, not just for
Miller but for the teams as well.
In Philadelphia, for example, Eagles fans
swarm to the Miller Lite Tailgate Zone. The
tailgate area, which lies inside the Lincoln
The Laker Girl cheerleaders in Miller-wear is an
example of how Miller integrates its sponsorships
into a sports franchise.
❘
its own appeal.”
While Miller is dominant in its home
state, it also has a firm grasp on Chicago
– historically one of its first and most
important out-of-state markets – with deals
with the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks and
White Sox.
“The relationship with the Miller
Brewing Company, the Chicago Bulls and
the United Center has been a long valued
and mutually beneficial association,” said
Bulls Executive Vice President of Business
Operations Steve Schanwald. “During this
period, the Bulls won six world championships, the United Center became the premier sports and entertainment venue in the
Midwest and the Miller Brewing Co. not
only maintained but even managed to grow
its number one-ranked market share in the
important Chicago market. It’s been a true
win-win partnership.”
White Sox Vice President of Marketing
Brooks Boyer echoed Schanwald’s sentiments on the relationship: “Miller has done
a fantastic job of activating its relationship
with the White Sox to further both the
Miller and White Sox brands. We appreciate Miller’s support of our organization
and look forward to many more rewarding
years together.”
In another example of Miller doing its
homework, it increased its stronghold on
the Chicago market by reaching a deal with
Chicagoland Speedway. Some of the executions there include the Miller Lite Oasis at
Sponsorships continued on page 49.
Living responsibly is a way of life at Miller
Miller Brewing Co.’s Live Responsibly
campaign, which debuted in 2001, is more
than a catchy title. It’s a reflection of
the company’s longtime commitment to
encourage responsible decision-making
regarding its products and alcohol in general.
Miller works with a broad range of
partners from law enforcement to community organizations to reduce drunk driving, prevent underage access to alcohol
and promote responsible decision-making.
The “Live Responsibly” campaign, through
print, radio and television executions, stresses the consequences of alcohol misuse to
legal drinking-age consumers. Paired with
the “Respect 21” campaign, focusing on
preventing youth access to alcohol, Miller
respects and dutifully serves its role as an
active corporate citizen.
The campaigns are the latest in Miller’s
ongoing efforts in alcohol education and
awareness, but Miller has always been an
industry leader in that cause. In the 1980s,
Miller supported the U.S. Department
of Transportation’s “Friends Don’t Let
Friends Drive Drunk” campaign by launching a campaign that helped instruct servers how to intervene with those who have
over-consumed. Miller was one of the first
corporate sponsors of BACCHUS (Boost
Alcohol Consciousness Concerning the
Health of University Students) in 1981.
Miller launched AIM (Alcohol Information
from Miller) in 1983 to promote the
involvement of Miller distributors as educators within their communities.
Those efforts continued into the 1990s
with the very effective “Think When You
Drink” campaign as
well as the “Let’s
Talk” printed campaign that continues
to educate parents
today.
Created in cooperation with leading
psychologists, family
counselors and law
enforcement officials,
the “Let’s Talk”
guide helps parents
begin a dialogue with
their children (6-11)
about alcohol and
decision-making. A
second guide, “Let’s
Keep Talking,” was
designed to help parents with teenage children address responsible decisions, such
as waiting until they are 21 to consume
alcohol, and inform them about the laws
surrounding alcohol as well as the consequences for violating those laws. Both
guides are available in English and Spanish.
Another important and effective printed
material Miller created is the driver license
guide, “Here’s Looking at Yours, Kid,” a
booklet to help sellers
and servers of alcohol
check for valid IDs to
prevent illegal underage access. The booklet,
produced in partnership with the National
Fraternal Order of Police, provides tips for
checking the validity of an ID and provides
examples of legitimate license formats for
all 50 states and the Canadian provinces.
To further combat underage drinking,
Miller launched the “We ID” program in
the mid-90s. Through this program, signage and point-of-sale materials with the
messages “We ID” and “21. It’s the Law.
Thank you for not providing alcohol to anyone under the age of 21.” were created to
help deter the sale of alcohol to minors.
Miller also has been active in keeping
the roads safe through its comprehensive
guide “The Keys to Responsibility:
A Guide to Encouraging Safe
Rides and Designated Drivers in
Your Community” and the Miller
Free Rides program. Through the
free rides program, Miller teams
with public transit companies,
law enforcement and community
organizations to provide free
public transportation on holidays
such as New Year’s Eve and St.
Patrick’s Day that traditionally
are heavy alcohol-consumption
days.
Sponsorships continued from page 48.
Chicagoland Speedway and the Miller Lite
Rock ‘n Racing Concerts, which are offered
after NASCAR qualifying events. Miller
also sponsors the Miller Lite Party Deck,
located at the Route 66 Raceway.
“We’ve enjoyed a great partnership with
Miller since the inception of Chicagoland
Speedway in 2001 and have established a
unique bond through our shared desire to
exceed our customers’ expectations,” said
Bob Welch, Chicagoland Speedway senior
director of marketing and sales.
Miller’s activation in Los Angeles with
the Lakers is a direct hit. During the entire
third quarter of home games, the Laker
Girl cheerleaders wear Miller Genuine
Draft identified uniforms. That eye-catching
activation is among the most effective in
L.A., along with Fiesta Lakers, a springtime
event that caters to the team’s Hispanic
following. Miller sponsors the sound stage,
entrance and beer garden at the event,
which drew 24,000 last year. “Miller is
one of our most active sponsors in helping
establish a bond with our community,” said
Lakers Executive Director of Corporate
Sponsorships Ron Rockoff.
In Houston, the Texans and Miller team
upon a variety of activations that help the
brand and team connect with the city. The
Texans’ and Miller throw one of the city’s
best Halloween events, which is hosted by
the Texans cheerleaders. The event, held in
the Reliant Stadium West Club last year,
was free to fans 21 and over with tickets available through Miller on-premise
promotions, game day promotions and at
HoustonTexans.com.
The Texans and Miller also team up
on an Hispanic heritage celebration that
includes interactive games, cheerleader
autographs and Football 101 en Espanol,
as well as a live concert. In addition, Miller
Lite serves as the presenting sponsor of the
Houston Texans Lone Star Club, an upscale
pre-game hospitality area.
Miller has a longstanding relationship
with the Indiana Pacers, and of course is
very well known for its history in motorsports. (See related article, page 42.)
Another perfect example of Miller’s strategic planning is its deal with the Detroit
Red Wings. While other brands may focus
on only one league or sports, Miller recognized the passion of hockey fans in Detroit
and made the affiliation. A notable execution was a concert series that ran during
the labor strike that helped strengthen the
unity between the brand, team and fans.
“What happens is teams will hear about
our successful sponsorships and they’ll
share ideas,” explained Reider. “Each one
may take on a slightly different form, but,
at the end of the day, what you have is a
marketing opportunity that is very unique
and effective for both the team and our
brand.”
❘
50
W E A P P L A U D Y O U F O R 15 0 Y E A R S O F
B R E W I N G E X C E L L E N C E I N M I LWA U K E E A N D
A R O U N D T H E W O R L D . C O N G R AT U L AT I O N S ,
M I L L E R , F R O M Y O U R F R I E N D S AT A B A L L PA R K
Y O U M AY H AV E H E A R D O F...
m i l w a u k e e b r e w e r s .c o m

For Miller, sports sponsorship begins at home

Transcription

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