Coors Light just wasn’t “cool” anymore.

The brand was losing younger drinkers to the seltzers, ready-to-drink cocktails, or hard kombuchas that dominated pop culture and their social feeds.

Younger drinkers found the brand irrelevant. One such drinker told us, “If Coors Light were a person, they’d just enjoy being mediocre.” Ouch.

An “ad campaign” couldn’t shake this apathy. Besides, Coors Light’s competitors were spending 49% more in media anyway.

No, given 63% of Gen Zers only buy brands that stand with them on the issues—Coors Light needed to take action.

So we aimed to create a program that would make drinkers 21 to 34 years-old reappraise Coors Light, inclusive of:

- Driving breakthrough via outsized earned media impressions

- Improving brand health, affinity, and consideration

- Boosting social media performance

All to reintroduce the next generation to and drive sales of Coors Light.

Sourcing an innovative white paint that reflects 85% of sunlight, we made Chillboards: billboards on roofs that lower temperatures inside.

Working with famed street artist ‘Andaluz the Artist,’ we designed a dynamic typeface that adapts to each roof to cover 96% of its surface area.

Each Chillboard used this typeface to paint the initiative’s key proof points—such as “Chilboards reflect 85% of sunlight” or “Chilling roofs up to 68 degrees”—across 36,000 square feet of roofing.

The end installation lowered surface temperatures by 50°F (28°C), and decreased inside temperatures by 10°F (6°C).

Doing so reduced air conditioning costs for residents by a full 20%—and generated $40,000 USD in annual community savings.

Thus Chillboards immediately benefited the community we served, while also raising greater awareness of the extreme heat crisis.

We then needed the ideal location to pilot Chillboards.

Miami, Florida rose as the perfect place to combat the heat gap.

Not only had the city scored the second-worst in the country for poverty levels, but in 2021 it experienced an alarming 23 extreme heat events.

In fact, the situation in Miami had gotten so dire that the city appointed the world's first ever Chief Heat Officer, Jane Gilbert, to come up with solutions.

Gilbert became a close partner to Coors Light throughout the process— even helping identify the ideal community to trial Chillboards.

And so we began setting up the pilot program, a pilot program that would have to measurably prove out the success of our big idea.

As the beer that’s “Made to Chill,” Coors Light needed to show younger drinkers that we believed in more than just cold beer.

So we asked ourselves: what if our ads could “chill” communities as much as our beer does?

Using an innovative white paint that reflects 85% of sunlight, we created Chillboards: billboards on roofs that lower temperatures inside.

- Chillboards utilized a font custom-designed to maximize coverage, each with a headline about extreme heat.

- This raised awareness of the heat crisis outside, while immediately cooling one underserved community inside in Miami, Florida.

- We partnered with the world's first ever Chief Heat Officer, Jane Gilbert, to create a film about the pilot program to inspire other leaders to prepare for heatwaves.

And to further democratize the chill, Coors Light donated 5,000 gallons of paint to communities in need and open-sourced its font.

While regular fonts are designed to evoke certain feelings, we created a typeface that would go even further and make a physical change.

Working with NYC street artist ‘Andaluz the Artist’, we developed a functional design that would maximise white space, leaving very little room for any heat absorption, yet still retaining legibility.

Each letter began as a solid white block that was shaped with minimal incisions and slight roundings to achieve the optimal heat-reflecting capability.

The typeface consists of 12 different widths making it capable of stretching and expanding to fit any area or roof shape with a 96% surface coverage.

The custom font reduced roof temperatures by 50°F/28°C, internal temperatures by 10°F/6°C and lowered AC costs up to 20%.

The font is fully downloadable and free for all to use, keeping the world chilled with maximum craft and coverage.

Chillboards directly benefited the community, the planet, and the business.

The program resulted in:

- 50°F (28°C) lower temperature on the roof surface

- 10°F (6°C) temperature difference inside

- 20% lower AC cost

- $40,000 USD annual community savings

And this impact made drinkers reappraise the Coors Light brand:

- Activation awareness among 21-34 YOs: 26.9% (8.8% above average)

- Positive impression of brand: +22.2 pts (4.24 pts above average)

- Purchase consideration: +42.4 pts (2x average)

All told, Chillboards boosted Coors Light sales by 9.7% in the region.