mike’s in a beer world

If you’re going to a party in South America, people expect you to bring beer. It’s a cultural rule of thumb. When 18-24 year-olds get together, they consume 660% more beer than other kinds of alcohol. But it puts Gen Z drinkers in a tough spot. They don’t always want to drink beer, but they often buy beer to fit in with everyone else at the party. They’re actually more interested in other kinds of alcohol — namely sweet, refreshing, and easy-to-drink beverages.

So mike’s Hard Lemonade showed up exactly where people are told to buy beer for parties: in beer ad campaigns themselves. We partnered with ABI beer brands in South America to create the first-ever ad campaigns within other campaigns. First, we put someone drinking mike’s in the background of our beer partners’ ads. Then we shot our own ads on the sets of those beer ads, but from the mike’s drinker’s POV. The hard lemonade and beer commercials ran back-to-back.Finally, we took hard lemonade everywhere else beer went: events, social media, film, out-of-home, radio, e-commerce, and at point-of-sale.

Awards include Cannes Silver Lion, AICP Next Award for Integrated, One Show Merit.