SITUATION: For decades, Busch beer has called the outdoors home and has been the beer of choice for those who like to spend their time fishing, hunting, hiking and camping. And every year, Busch drinkers look forward to the Fall when Busch releases their outdoor cans celebrating these outdoor pursuits. Traditionally, these cans promoted a sweepstakes where winners received a great outdoors trip. In the fall of 2018, the brand decided to do some good instead of offering a contest.

BRIEF: Activate Busch’s new partnership with the National Forest Foundation in a way that grabs people’s attention and helps the NFF’s cause.

OBJECTIVES: Drive awareness of the National Forest Foundation, the Busch partnership, and engage Busch Drinkers in donations to support reforestation.

Wanting to help as much as possible, we took a 360 approach to generating awareness and donations for the National Forest Foundation. The first place we started was the Busch product itself. On every 18, 24, and 30 Outdoor pack of Busch beers sold nationwide, we informed consumers they could help “Protect Our National Forests” just by buying Busch as a portion of pack proceeds would go to the NFF. Then, online, we introduced “Tree-Roll” the first-ever pre-roll ad that donates to a good cause. In the first five seconds of the skippable ad, we told viewers that if they didn’t skip the ad, and watched the full 30 seconds, a tree would be planted on their behalf in a National Forest. Then in October, we turned NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick’s at-track success into donations for the NFF. For every lap he led, we donated $1,000 up to $25,000.

Busch consumers over-index in being Outdoor Enthusiasts. They not only love the outdoors, they spend more time in the outdoors than the average consumer. And while our consumers can be found in a variety of places online, we chose to approach them on a platform where we knew we’d get their full attention, for at least five seconds: YouTube. Through skippable pre-roll ads, we used affinity targeting to identify Outdoor Enthusiasts and give them an opportunity to make a tangible and positive impact on one of their major passion points. We ran our ad on a Tuesday, just days after the official first day of Fall when our outdoor enthusiasts would want nothing more than to get outside and enjoy the crisp air.

The partnership and campaign launched in September with the National Forest Foundation branded 18, 24, and 30 Outdoor packs of Busch beer. Thousands of packs hit the shelves nationwide, making our message hard to miss anytime someone was shopping for beer. Then, on September 25, the Tuesday after the first day of fall, we intercepted fans online with our Tree-Roll ad on YouTube. The ad was targeted at Outdoor Enthusiasts, and in less than 24 hours had exceeded our goal of 50,000 views. Finally, in October, over two million NASCAR viewers heard about our partnership and promotion to help the National Forest Foundation through the custom Busch paint scheme and track activation with Kevin Harvick and the #4 car.

In less than 24 hours, we exceeded our goal of 50,000 views, resulting in over 50,000 trees being planted.

Three out of four people watched the entire 30-second ad.

Our View-Through Rate was 71%, almost double YouTube’s average.

Cost Per View: three cents.

We helped the National Forest Foundation plant the most trees it’s ever planted in a single year.