Miller Genuine Draft (MGD) was lost.

Five different campaigns in 10 years, and no advertising at all for the last two led to declining awareness, relevance and sales.

It had been “marketed” in ways that felt disingenuine and like they were trying just a bit too hard to attract people.

Which is never good—but in this case “Genuine” is in our name, so we had to strip it all the way down and find the core truth that would drive MGD.

Our brief was to hit the reset button on MGD. Unpack its DNA to figure out what makes MGD MGD, and then unearth a cultural insight to creatively serve up and reintroduce MGD to a younger audience.

Launch a seltzer… into oblivion.

We joined the “every beer has to launch a seltzer” trend the only way we knew how—by launching a seltzer into space.

MGD strapped rival seltzers to a rocket and built buzz around a livestream event.

We teased the launch with video content then hosted a live-stream of the launch (that more than one million people tuned in to watch).

That “next hot thing” is hard seltzer. It’s enjoyed explosive category growth and every beer brand is jumping on the bandwagon to launch one.

But MGD would never launch a seltzer, because it is unapologetically beer. Our key message.

Because beer is pretty fucking awesome. And not some obscure triple-hopped, pumpkin-spiced IPA chocolate infused concoction—just you know...a beer beer. It’s time for beer to stand up for itself—and MGD is exactly the right brand to do just that.

Our mission was to reintroduce MGD to loyal fans and introduce the brand to a younger generation of Milliennials and Gen Zers.

Social assets teed up an MGD seltzer launch which appeared to advertise a new product. We then dropped a film teaser for the live launch. More social assets kept attention and drove people to our second hero asset which was a seven-minute livestream of the seltzer launch.

The campaign was executed with a three-pronged approach.

First: We distributed teaser assets on social which appeared to advertise a new MGD seltzer product. Copy led people to believe it would be “launching soon”. These were posted on MGD’s Twitter and Instagram account. Miller Lite’s channels were also leveraged for its larger following.

Second: As social conversation swirled about the launch of a new MGD seltzer, we followed three days later with our hero film which revealed MGD was actually launching rival beer brands’ seltzers into oblivion. The CTA was to encouraged people to tune in three days later for a livestream of the launch.

Third: A seven-minute long livestream of the seltzer launch on Twitter.

Highest brand awareness lift ever (+26.7% increase) among 21 to 34-year-olds (YouGov, sample of 468) for a Molson Coors band activation

>25% 21 to 34-year-olds aware of Miller Lite and Miller High Life were also aware of the activation.

More than half a billion impressions.

40% completion rate for one-minute teaser video (average completion rates for Facebook videos is between 5 and 15%)

+1M tuned into the live event across Miller's social channels.

+160 press placements.

98% positive/neutral social sentiment.

84% headline penetration.