The Big Game: Ravens, 49ers, Budweiser

Bud Light is the official beer of the NFL. You won't be able to keep that out of your mind as you watch the game on Sunday. Why? Because Anheuser Busch/InBev will spend enough money to make sure you don't.

You may recall last year, when the good folks at AB/InBev launched the Bud Light Platinum brand. At 6% ABV, Bud Light Platinum certainly didn't belong in the light category. But when the rest of your portfolio is in free fall, you stick with what does move and what still moves is Bud Light. Thus, Bud Light Platinum.

I've tasted BLP. I don't think it's a terrible beer. But I always thought the marketing was a mess. People looking for light beer aren't generally looking for a beer with 6% alcohol. To prove that boatloads of money can overcome bad marketing, AB/InBev spent millions to launch the brand.

And it worked. BL Platinum was fairly successful with younger drinkers who had moved on from light beer to the hard stuff. Some were sucked in. Here in Portland, BL Platinum bombed nicely. You don't see much of it on store shelves. Craft beer is king here. Anything with an Anheuser-Busch label tends to meet stiff resistance. We're odd that way.

Nonetheless, the Bud Light Platinum campaign reveals where Anheuser-Busch is headed as it attempts to hold onto market share. They're going after younger beer drinkers who, even if they may be disenchanted with light beer, have yet to fully discover craft beer. The thinking is that these are people who can be swayed with slick advertising and a slick product.

Super Bowl ads
According to Ad Age Media News, CBS (with easily the worst coverage of the NFL-affiliated networks, in my view) has sold out its Super Bowl ad inventory. Go figure. At $3.7 to $3.8 million per 30 second spot! As usual, AB/InBev is the biggest spender, having purchased three 30-second ads and three 60-second ads. They don't mess around.

The first ad you see after the game starts will be for Bud Black Crown. You may recall Budweiser's "Zip Code" series, where their breweries in different parts of the country brewed specialty beers. The beer brewed in Los Angeles, known as 91406, is being rebranded as Black Crown and is headed for national release in a few weeks. A second ad for Black Crown will run in the third quarter.

Perfect for the Kardashians

Another new product gets a 30-second spot in the third quarter. The beer is Beck's Sapphire, brewed in the United States...with German Saphir hops they claim. Don't be confused by the name...this is a pilsner. Like Bud Light Platinum, which came in trendy blue bottle, Sapphire relies on its own special bottle...a black one. The bottle evidently took two years to develop. No word on how long it took to refine the recipe for this stuff. If you have to ask, you probably don't want to know.

These beers have lots in common. Both are higher in alcohol than existing precursors: Sapphire (6%) vs. standard Becks (5%) and Black Crown (6%) vs. regular Bud (about 5%). They also cost more. As with Bud Light Platinum, AB/InBev is going after younger drinkers with a hipper and higher in alcohol message.

All about the bottle

We'll also get a couple of new Bud Light ads, set to run in 60-second spots during the second and third quarters. These ads have been fairly entertaining at times over the years and I suspect the news ones will fit that bill. Finally, they're pulling out the warm and fuzzy card with an ad devoted to Budweiser's Clydesdale horses...there's a new foal and they want your help naming it.

Setting aside all that, the overarching theme here is money. Lots of it. If you can't win people over with products that stand on their own merit, advertising is the answer. AB/InBev has money to burn and they're going to burn a chunk of it (about $17 million) in an effort to convince Super Bowl viewers that they are a vibrant, relevant brand. Read into that whatever you want.

Name that baby horse

The fact is, the macro brands are all about image and style. That's been their theme for decades and they aren't moving away from it. They produce a middling product and leverage the hell out of it with advertising. That was a viable strategy until recent times, when they started losing market share to craft brands and other segments (wine, spirits, ciders).

AB/InBev's response to this challenge has actually put a new twist on the old strategy. First, they produce fake craft beer and spend lavishly to win over (primarily) young drinkers. Second, they gobble up respectable brands and hollow them out by shifting production to giant factories and using cheaper ingredients. I've talked about this before and it is well-known in beer circles.

You really have to wonder what would happen if these guys ever got truly serious about making good beer. It isn't likely because they are far more about marketing than they are about good product. Nonetheless, you have to wonder.

The game
The Super Bowl game is largely a sideshow for mega marketing campaigns. That's not the way the game started out, but that's what it has become. Modern American culture is driven by money and excess, so you see game tickets going for $850 (seats still available!) and TV ads selling for exorbitant prices.

Of course, some people do care about the actual game. I've been a 49ers fan since I was a small kid and lived in the Bay Area, so I'll be rooting for them and against the Ravens. I like the whole Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh thing, but I really do not care for Ray Lewis and the Ravens.

This will likely be a close game. San Francisco is favored by 3.5 right now. The Ravens are getting a lot of respect coming off road playoff wins against Denver and New England. I don't think they've seen the likes of the 49ers, who have a solid defense, a solid running game, solid receivers and a quarterback who can throw and run. Pumpernickel is the wild card in this game. I don't see how Baltimore can account for him. Of course, I may be wrong. We'll see.

San Francisco 31, Baltimore 27.

Bud Light Platinum: Where Taste and Common Sense Don't Meet

Budweiser has contributed a lot to the marketing extravaganza that is the Super Bowl. Let's face it. The folks at Anheuser-Busch/InBev have a lot of cash to throw at advertising messages and campaigns. Advertising is their lifeblood, and an example of how spending a lot of money can keep consumers buying a flawed product.

Who can forget the marketing genius of the infamous Bud Bowl promotion? It had an eight-year run, 1989-1997. Bottles of beer with football helmets butting heads. Very popular. I always thought the Bud Bowls were first rate idiocy, an affront to the intelligence of football fans.

In spite of their ad budgets and ingenious campaigns, Bud and the other big boy macros have been losing market share. The downturn has been well-documented on this blog and elsewhere. Some big boy brand segments are in free fall, seeing 30-72 percent sales declines between 2006 and 2010. Ye gods!

The one brand segment that keeps them afloat is light beer. Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Lite don't show up on the list of declining brand segments. Americans continue to suck up light beers, while steering away from old standards like original Budweiser, Miller and Coors.

Of course, some of the loss of big boy market share can be attributed to craft beer. The craft segment is small, but growing, and has essentially chipped away at the middle and top of the macro brands. Budweiser can no longer position Bud and Michelob as premium beers. Consumers are looking elsewhere.

Available now, just in time for the big game!

Anheuser-Busch's response to this reality is to expand their light beer segment, which they have done with Bud Light with Lime, Bud Select and others. These forays have seen limited success. Bud Select was a monumental flop. But onward they come, chasing the days when they dominated the beer market.

And so it is that they have released a new 'light" beer to coincide with the Super Bowl. We will almost certainly see this product advertised during the game. The beer is Bud Light Platinum. It comes is a flashy blue bottle and is nominally a light beer. But at 6% ABV, you wonder how it fits into the "light" category. Hmmmm.

If the marketing gurus at AB think increasing the alcohol content of Bud Light will help them steal back consumers who have switched to craft beer, I think they're chasing their tails. But maybe they are on to something. Perhaps they have additional exciting ideas up their sleeves:

• Bourbon Barrel-aged Bud Light Platinum
• Bud Light Platinum in a 750 ml bottle with a wax dipped cap
• Imperial Bud Light Platinum
• Cask-conditioned Bud Light Platinum
• Special release Bud Light Platinum for the Oregon Brewers Festival

Anyway, be sure to watch for the BL Platinum ads during the game. But make sure your Super Bowl party cooler is well-stocked with craft beer.
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Update: Stltoday.com has a nice review of what AB/InBev has in mind with Bud Light Platinum. They essentially say they're going after a "higher end, more sophisticated" consumer. Too bad the packaging and ad campaign are where the money is being spent. Maybe one of these days AB/InBev will invest in making quality beer. Oh, in case you were wondering, we'll be seeing two (apparently) 30-second ads for Bud Light Platinum during the Super Bowl. The cost: $3.5 million each.