Bud Light Seltzer doesn't contain beer, brand says in first ad from The Martin Agency

A Bud Light Seltzer truck rumbles down a rural two-lane highway when it hits a bump, its rear doors fly open, and out spill hundreds of colorful bubbles.

Set to the Black Pumas’ song “Colors,” the new commercial is Bud Light Seltzer’s first work from The Martin Agency. The shop took control of the creative account for hard seltzer and other Bud Light line extensions last year for the Anheuser Busch InBev-owned brand, which is trying to emerge from a sales slump.

The bubbles are out to solve the challenge of convincing drinkers that Bud Light Seltzer is not a beer, while making the brand show up in a “more mature and beautiful way,” Steve Wolf, marketing VP of Bud Light Extensions, said in an interview.

Bud Light launched its hard seltzer in February of 2020, chasing down hits such as Mark Anthony Brand’s White Claw and Boston Beer’s Truly. Bud Light’s distribution muscle and name recognition helped the brand to become the No. 3 seltzer in a matter of weeks, said Wolf. But sales have fallen of late as the larger seltzer category struggles.

The brand’s initial creative work helped to distinguish Bud Light the hard seltzer from Bud Light the beer, said Wolf, but once the pandemic hit “we really stopped talking about it.”

Fifty-four percent of consumers believed Bud Light Seltzer had beer in it, according to surveys the brand conducted last year. (Though categorized as flavored malt beverages, Bud Light Seltzers owe their alcohol to fermented sugar, not malt, differing them from beer, Wolf said.) The perception that Bud Light Seltzer contained beer was a barrier to purchase, Wolf said, underscored in the ad’s tagline: “100% hard seltzer, 0% beer.”

The Martin Agency “just became incredible thought partners for us,” Wolf said. “Oftentimes, when you brief a campaign, you write it, you come back, and there’s a big ‘tada,’ moment as you go through the brief. We actually wrote the brief together, because we felt so confident that we had good mind meld to understand what the challenges were.”

The colorful bubbles work as a construct in conveying lightness, flavor and variety, Wolf said. They can be dramatic elements in a 60-second ad, but could also show up in a 15-second spot. “If a picture tells a thousand words, we say bubbles can tell a million,” Wolf said.

Down dramatically

Bud Light Seltzer's new creative comes as the hard seltzer category is ailing. Dollar sales in the category fell 12% in the year ending Feb. 19, according to in-store sales data provided by beer trade publisher Beer Marketer’s Insights. Bud Light Seltzer sales volume plummeted 52% in the four weeks ending Feb. 18, according to  NielsenIQ data cited by Beer Marketer's Insights.

Some seltzer drinkers have moved onto spirits-based seltzer brands such as High Noon (now a bigger seller than Bud Light Seltzer), while others have moved to other flavored malt beverages, liquor or gone back to beer, said Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer’s Insights.

Despite the category struggles, seltzer sales still represent about 9% of the total beer industry, said Wolf.

“It’s too big not to be laser-focused on,” he said. The brand is working on widening its consideration set because repeat purchase rates among those who try Bud Light Seltzers are “awesome,” Wolf said.

“We know that there is a challenge of this perception, [and] we know, this spot helps educate,” Wolf said. “And it’s very clear in terms of hitting that message in a beautiful way. And we know once people try, they will come back in droves. And so, I feel very confident if we execute this plan in a great way, we’ll be in a great spot to be successful.”

The new campaign will run nationwide on national television, and on streaming TV and social channels, Wolf said.

The launch is accompanied by the release of an adult tabletop card game called “Misconceptions.” Made by Rabble Games, Wolf likened “Misconceptions” to a “Cards Against Humility”-styled game challenging teams to decipher what is fact and what is a misconception. The game will be available at AB InBev’s Shop Beer Gear site.

In an agency review held last summer, Martin emerged with the creative lead for Bud Light’s line extensions while Anomaly took over for Bud Light. Both accounts had been handled by Wieden+Kennedy. Early work from Anomaly and Martin each show a more mature outlook for a brand that was often cast as a party beer.

“We’re making a step change to elevate and 'premiumize' these brands,” Wolf said. “So the way we’ve shown up in the past will look different than the way we show up in the future.”

Sangria Splash is Bud Light’s newest seltzer offering, becoming the brand’s first seltzer made with real fruit juice. Wolf said Sangria Splash “seltzerizes” the current popularity of sangria, which he called the country’s No. 3 cocktail. Bolder flavors is also a growth trend in seltzer, he added.

New work for Bud Light Chelada is next up for the brand, Wolf said.