Philadelphia was a city without a hero. It was a city that touted Rocky Balboa as the most famous person in their canon, and he’s a fictional movie character.

Meanwhile, Bud Light’s “Dilly Dilly” campaign was being embraced by the sports world, most notably in the National Football League. Philadelphia Eagles fans showed a particular affinity for the two nonsensical words.

Then, Lane Johnson, a Philadelphia Eagles player promised the city that in the (very unlikely) event that the Eagles won the 2018 Super Bowl, he’d buy the whole city of 1.5 million people a beer.

It seemed like as good a time as any for Bud Light to enter the Philly fray. And maybe give the city a new hero.

Bud Light is all about being there for your fellow man. And in this case our fellow man was an Eagles offensive lineman who had just promised to buy 1.5 million beers for a city in the event of a Super Bowl victory. So, we responded by backing his bet.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia embraced Bud Light’s “Dilly Dilly” tagline as “Philly Philly”, which became a rally cry for the Eagles football team, as well as the city they called home.

When the Eagles miraculously reached the Super Bowl, they turned “Philly Philly” into a play call run by Quarterback Nick Foles, helping them win the championship. The city had found its hero.

So, Bud Light bought the whole city beer, just like we said we would.

Then, we decided to enshrine Foles forever as a 12-foot-tall bronze statue outside Eagles’ stadium. Why? Because every city needs someone to believe in.

Our initial objective was to reach Lane Johnson’s Philadelphia Eagles fan base via Twitter, but our ultimate goal was to reach Bud Light’s target audience — male and female NFL fans aged 21-34. We engaged the national audience via our buzzworthy “Dilly Dilly”, and also by intertwining ourselves with the Eagles’ 2017 Cinderella story. As fans changed “Dilly Dilly” to “Philly Philly,” they made our campaign their own. We captured fans’ attention nationwide and expanded our base within Philadelphia, a key, low-penetration market for Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch in the Northeast. Through a relentless media and social strategy we generated consistent consumer and media interest over 27 weeks, leveraging the viral “Dilly Dilly” to engage fans as the Eagles continued to advance. Our season-long approach also included:

- Engagement w/Lane Johnson’s team

- Coordination w/Philadelphia Eagles -Partnership w/City of Philadelphia Mayor’s Office - Constant communication w/regional wholesaler, Penn Beer.

In 2018, the Philadelphia Eagles took Bud Light’s “Dilly Dilly” and made it their own. At Super Bowl 52, the Eagles defeated the New England Patriots, overcoming insurmountable odds to win their first championship in history.

From the Super Bowl through the summer and the start of the new 2019 season, Bud Light celebrated Philly by:

February 4, 2018 - Provided the city of Philly with Free Beer

February 2018 - Rolled out new PHILLY PHILLY aluminum bottle packaging

May 2018 - Announced that new commemorative bottles were coming

June 2018 - Released content with Swoop (Eagles mascot) + Eagles Players promoting new commemorative packs

August 2018 - Released commemorative packs

Finally in August 2018, we created something a little more permanent: a 12-ft tall, 1700 pound bronze statue commemorating the moment that turned a brand message into a rallying cry for Philly, gifting the statue to Lincoln Financial Field

Our engagement with Philadelphia Eagles fans in the course of the year has resulted in astounding share gains in the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding area. We not only increased sales, but became a part of culture leaving Philadelphia with a new battle cry for every NFL season to come - PHILLY PHILLY!

- +1.8 YTD share gains in Philadelphia (over 2 million more Bud Lights sold)

- 20% sales lift

- 1.6 billion total impressions

- 3,982 News Stories

- 245,298 total social mentions