We weren’t going to reverse Budweiser’s declining segment share or change the way consumers think about our brand with a series of pre-roll ads. So, we decided to go for their hearts and feature real people and real stories.

But we couldn’t tell just any stories, they needed to be stories and moments relevant to both Budweiser and our consumers. We identified key moments related to our shared passion points and released long-form digital films. “This Bud’s For 2” helped an entire city say goodbye to one of the best baseball players in history, “Camo Drop” and “A Dream Delivered” honored military veterans, and “One Last Ride” celebrated the storied career of a former Budweiser NASCAR driver.

Our long-form digital films were released across Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to sync exactly with cultural conversations important to our brand and our consumers. Each film was exactly the length it needed to be to tell the story, no more, no less.

By strategically targeting our films to passionate fans, we ensured the people who would most enjoy them (and be most likely to watch to completion and share) saw the content first. We rolled out our plan throughout the entire year, leading to six “Super Bowl” sized moments for a brand that for the past few decades was used to only one.

The bold bet on longform storytelling paid off big time. Bud was named the most valuable beer in the country by WPP and Kantar Millward Brown. The average earned rate across our digital films was three times the industry norm, and they all had more than 90 percent positive sentiment.

Not only did we gain market share in the beer segment, reversing a losing trend, but 2017 saw the largest brand health lift in 20 years. It takes a lot of work to turn around a brand as big as Budweiser. But it’s clear to see that our work was the spark the brand needed.