The pressure to succeed was largely driven by brands in the sports and fitness industry who had spent years telling the world to sacrifice everything in the name of success. The prevailing notion around health and wellness had become “the more serious you are, the better you’ll be,” and by 2020, living a balanced lifestyle felt more stressful and out of reach than ever before.

With health and wellness trends on the rise, more Americans aspire to live a healthy lifestyle than ever before. But in this new world, balance can be hard to find and the pressure to succeed is causing millions of people to turn away from beer. As a superior, light-tasting, low-cal, low-carb beer, Michelob ULTRA was well-positioned to stop the bleed and lead future growth for the category. To lead future growth for the category, Michelob ULTRA would need to convince men and women 28-45 who typically drink Miller or Coors to trade up to the brand. Further research revealed that the brand's roots as a low-carb, low-cal fitness beer felt too “serious” and “boring” for their preferred drinking occasions. For ULTRA to grow, we would need to change the way they thought about health and beer while still playing into their desire for beer brands to feel fun.

The problem with this “win at all costs” mentality is that it leaves out the most important part: JOY. Effort alone rarely leads to success and if it does it's unlikely to stick around for very long. To lead future growth for the category, Michelob ULTRA would need to convince men and women 28-45 who typically drink Miller or Coors to trade up to the brand. Men who, like ULTRA, place a high value on ambition, success and being the best version of themselves. But when it came to health and wellness, the pressure to succeed was overwhelming. As the low-carb, low-cal beer, only ULTRA had the credentials to reveal this true secret to success and change the way people think about health and beer.

ULTRA partnered with the most successful names in the game to flip the serious world of sports on its head. By showing the off-the-court, joy-filled, beer-drinking side of big-name athletes like Jimmy Butler and Peyton Manning, we were able to disrupt the biggest sporting events of the year and engage fans in the joyful side of sports.

We created “The Indoor Open” and partnered with the notoriously serious sports commentator, Joe Buck, to give Americans an unexpected, joy-filled professional golf experience during lockdown.

We disrupted the traditionally stiff world of golf by partnering with Peyton Manning to remake iconic scenes from the movie Caddyshack and launched a limited-edition beer cart to remind American’s of the joy in the game for The Match II.

We flipped the NBA’s most competitive season on its head by partnering with Jimmy Butler to reveal the joy behind his journey into The Bubble.

By the year’s end, the ULTRA brand was becoming just as big as its business. Continuing to hold its claim as the fastest share-gainer in the beer category, ULTRA also saw significant improvements in its brand power score, earned impessions, and over 4 billion impressions made, and momentum were built for the brand in a very short amount of time, setting the foundation for what to expect from the brand for years to come.