In Canada, hockey is life. It is also critical to the very competitive beer category, as it represents the largest beer-drinking occasion in the country.

However, Budweiser’s largest competitor, Molson Canadian, held the official league sponsorship, giving them a powerful national partnership and putting their brand at centre ice of every game. Molson’s association with hockey through this sponsorship equated to an unbreakable connection with the fans Budweiser needed to target.

In September 2016, the world was coming to Canada to play in the biggest hockey tournament in a decade. Budweiser knew every single goal would matter and we needed all 36 million Canadians to unite and share in the celebration.

Our idea was to turn the country into a fully functioning game-synced goal light and literally “Light Up the Nation” whenever Canada scored.

We began our mission in January and by the time the first puck dropped in September, we had a massive 25-foot working goal light on top of the world, a one-of-a-kind out of home campaign that lit up whenever Canada scored, a goal-synced social campaign, and hundreds of thousands of goal-synced red light glasses in people’s hands. We were truly ready to Light Up The Nation.

The Budweiser Light Up the Nation campaign consisted of an incredible blend of innovation, promotion, and sales-driving tactics that the beer category had never seen before. Within weeks, Budweiser had over 500,000 goal-synced glasses in the hands of fans, driving massive brand association to the sport while generating a promotion that truly elevated the game-watching experience for fans. The results show the power of tapping into a consumer insight, backing ideas with flawless execution and truly elevating the experience for hockey fans across Canada.

Demand

In three weeks, over 500,000 goal-synced glasses had been activated. This trended the Red Light App to the top spot at the App Store. Glasses began appearing for sale on eBay for upwards of $100.

KPIs

Objective: Increase past-four-week (P4W) consumption and top-three favourite (T3F) brands vs. a year ago

Result: Delivered statistically significant P4W growth (+2.2 points vs. last year) and T3F growth (+0.9 points vs. last year)

Objective: Grow market share (promo period vs. a year ago)

Result: Grew share of segment (+0.28 points vs. last year) at expense of key competitors

Objective: Break the record for highest PR impressions for a Budweiser hockey campaign

Result: Drove 95 million impressions, successfully making this the highest earned reach for a Budweiser hockey campaign