Most brands sponsor sports broadcasts. Michelob ULTRA reinvented how sports are broadcasted. Live. During the NBA Playoffs.

We partnered with the New York Knicks and the MSG Network, helping Cameron Black become the first blind person to commentate an NBA game on TV.

Over the course of the pregame show, the live game, and a 3-hour live stream, Cameron broke the boundaries of accessibility in sports media, experiencing basketball like never before and broadcasting for millions.

His historic broadcast kicked off our commitment to making sports accessible.

Michelob ULTRA is a low-calorie beer that believes in joy as an essential component of an active lifestyle. You should be able to be physically active AND enjoy a beer afterward.

Our brand platform, “It’s Only Worth It If You Enjoy It,” has brought this belief to life in groundbreaking and culturally relevant ways over the last few years, addressing issues such as burnout, fans being shut out of games during COVID lockdowns, and more. Our cultural relevance in sports has helped us grow from the #5 domestic beer to #2 in the U.S.

But with billions of marketing dollars spent each year, competition never ends in the beer category.

So, to continue growing our market share, we set out to address another pressing, hot-button issue in sports culture: accessibility. Since most people focus on the accessibility of playing, we championed the underdiscussed accessibility of enjoying as a fan.

Cameron Black was born completely blind. But it didn’t stop him from having big dreams — specifically, of being a sports broadcaster. On April 21, 2023, Michelob ULTRA made his dream a reality. We worked with Cameron over the course of a year to develop a groundbreaking, multisensorial technology that allowed him to fully experience and commentate a game. Through data and A.I., he was able to understand and feel every gameplay moment and movement. And he got to share his views with millions of sports fans.

Our partnership with Cameron during the NBA Playoffs is only the beginning of a larger commitment to accessibility.

In October 2023, Michelob ULTRA will make this technology available to everyone, with a free app that uses sound, haptics, and spatial audio, all specially designed for the visually impaired. Our mission will extend beyond basketball to the worlds of soccer, football, and baseball.

The NBA brings joy to billions. Yet this joy isn’t equally accessible to all. So, as a brand that believes “It’s Only Worth It If You Enjoy It,” Michelob ULTRA expanded the cultural conversation about accessibility to include the accessibility of enjoying live sports.

Problem: 284 million blind or visually impaired sports fans worldwide struggle to enjoy live games. They can listen to commentary, but anyone who loves basketball knows the joy of the game goes beyond what you can hear.

Insight: The joy of being a basketball fan comes from truly feeling the game.

Strategy: Translate the action of a basketball game into a language that blind and visually impaired fans can feel, not just hear.

We developed groundbreaking technology that immersed blind and visually impaired fans in live games. Launching the technology during the NBA Playoffs kick-started our commitment to making the joy of sports accessible to all.

On April 21, 2023, Cameron commentated a complete NBA Playoff game on live TV: Knicks vs. Cavs, Game 3. We set up a multisensorial studio that enabled him to commentate the game.

This was made possible by a groundbreaking technology: First, using A.I.-powered braille, we put a world’s worth of basketball data at Cameron’s fingertips. Then, we used spatial audio to sonically place Cameron in the center of the court, so he could fully grasp every second of the game: the movement, the plays, and the speed. Finally, we added haptic feedback that allowed him to literally feel the reverberations of each moment.

Using DreamCaster, Cameron made his debut as a broadcaster during the NBA Playoffs in a partnership with the MSG Network. This historic moment aired on prime-time TV during the live game and was streamed online.

DreamCaster launched a few weeks ago, but it already looks set to become Michelob ULTRA’s next cultural juggernaut.

Cameron’s historic broadcast notched the second-highest TV ratings of any program in its market that day, immediately captivating 10.4 million viewers.

And his commentary echoed throughout the most iconic arena in the world: Madison Square Garden. 21,000 fans and passersby outside witnessed sports history being made.

But the impact for Michelob ULTRA goes well beyond a local gameday broadcast activation.

Within days of DreamCaster going live, organic search volume for Michelob ULTRA jumped 55% and social conversation about Michelob ULTRA increased by 44%.

This initial barrage of excitement, both local and national, sets the stage for Michelob ULTRA’s long-term commitment to championing accessibility in sports culture.

We’ve proved (and will continue to prove) that it’s only worth it if we ALL enjoy it.

To most sports fans, an NBA game is filled with a few key stats: points, rebounds, steals, etc. But the truth is that every NBA game consists of billions of data points.

Every NBA game consists of over one thousand “plays”; a “play” can range anywhere from a shot to a rebound to a pass. In partnership with Sportradar, the NBA’s official statistics provider, we translated each play of the game into millions of data points that Cameron Black could feel through a combination of haptics, generative braille, and sound. Cameron felt the sensation of each play 60 seconds ahead of the broadcast, giving him time to develop his live commentary.

By putting over a billion basketball statistics at Cameron’s literal fingertips, we created a sense of multidimensional immersiveness that changed his life and forever changed basketball for millions of blind and visually impaired fans around the world.

Every campaign element has been reviewed by the American Foundation for the Blind, and made accessible for the blind through audio descriptions. This includes campaign videos, social ads, and deliverables.