Michelob Ultra –the beer brand that aims to redefine the meaning of drinking a low-cal beer in Mexico, created the first bar in the world where everything you drink and eat has 95 calories, just like its beer.

A tailored experience that transforms regular-size beers, cocktails, and food into mini ones and exposes consumers to the full glory and taste of Michelob's 95 Cals while letting them discover how shocking the comparison is with any other alternative.

Right from the start, Michelob Ultra's purpose has been redefining wellness misconceptions by establishing enjoyment as a new standard with our brand platform: "It's only worth it if you enjoy it." However, at the end of 2022, we struggled with the target's perception of our beer.

Our challenge was to prove once and for all that our beer's low-calorie count doesn't make it less enjoyable. Quite the opposite, Michelob Ultra has all the flavor with so few calories it allows you to enjoy more of what you like. Maintaining Michelob's Brand Power growth required a fresh angle to help our audience understand our functional benefits and experience them firsthand.

Objectives:

Sustain the growth of its Brand Power by gaining at least 1 pp.

Increase trial by 2 pp.

Increase sales by 10%.

Increasing perception of a balanced lifestyle and its ability to fit social occasions.

We are always talking about Michelob Ultra’s 95 cals, but are we really sure people know what it actually means? We don’t think so. If that were the case, their choice between any regular beer and our 95 cals Michelob Ultra, would be a no brainer.

So first, we scaled down the iconic glasses of our competitors to fit just 95 calories in them. Then, we kept resizing other drinks and foods until we had lots of mini-dishes and mini-cocktails. And finally, we created a bar where people could enjoy the experience and, once and for all, understand what 95 cals look like.

This was for people ready to make better lifestyle choices and start a healthier journey without compromising joy (growth of 300% in searches on how to live a healthier lifestyle). People between the ages of 30 to 45 usually have a hard time keeping their goals, and 95% fail because they deprive themselves of food they love while choosing alternatives with an underwhelming taste.

When people think of "low calories," they automatically think "less." Less flavor, less amount, less joy. This influenced Michelob Ultra's perception, with consumers referring to us as "less than a beer." We wanted consumers to realize by themselves that drinking a superior-flavored beer with only 95 calories means they can enjoy more in the exact place where they aim to have a good time.

Our priority was to immerse our audience in Michelob Ultra's world and truly understand what Michelob's all about.

The 95 Cals Bar shined in its true glory, drawing everyone's attention to our competitors' tiny glasses, tiny food, and our huge tasty beer, while well-known lifestyle media collaborators, our squad of content creators, and food-related influencers shared their experience on SM.

Then, we turned our offline experience into online content by partnering with high-reach beloved celebrities to create content designed to live our experience from a distance and generate social conversation.

Finally, we took the bar off the streets into mass channels to ensure the impact we sought. We supported our brand experience with our campaign "Mini Calories," where just like in our bar, we showcased how tiny food, cocktails, and our competitor's glasses looked like compared to our 95-calorie beer.

The experience was sold out on the official site in less than a week; it got more than 46K posts talking about it with a 98% positive sentiment and earned estimated in more than 7M MXN. Due to the digital amplification efforts and the support of our "mini calories" campaign running parallel to the experience, we rebounded our Brand Power indicator from 3.18 (2021) to 3.34 (FY 2022).

Additionally, there hasn't been any other experience in the history of AB Inveb Mexico as successful as this one, thanks to its 934M impressions, over 400% above any closest referent.

According to Food Revolution 2022 of Nielsen Mexico, the Mexican market is increasingly interested in their health (7 of 10 people bet on a healthier lifestyle), which has multiplied the offer of "healthy" goods. In addition, with the arrival of the NORM-51 of the Health National Secretary, products are filled with mandatory stamps with nutritional information. However, they are hard to understand and have a massive let-down regarding taste.

Given this cultural context, Michelob's value proposition can be hard to understand and appreciate. On one end, beer has a reputation for being a source of indulgence. On the other hand, a low-cal product carries the stigma of having terrible flavor. This dilemma has pushed consumers to misjudge Michelob Ultra as "less than a beer" and reject it, especially on social occasions - the category's main drinking moment (51% vol).