Whilst much has been said about Bud Light and their efforts in esports, the brand remains undeterred and continues to plug away in the space. The brand came under criticism for last year’s “All-Star” campaign as people argued that simply put – the players weren’t all-stars.
Regardless, they’ve achieved over 433,000 YouTube hits and 3.6 million minutes of esports competition were watched with Bud Light branding attached – according to Forbes. The All-Stars program is back, with four layers from Call of Duty, CS:GO, Hearthstone and Street Fighter V.
Call of Duty players include Scump, Clayster, Crimsix and Jkap, whilst CS:GO includes JDM, SGares, Rush and Shahzam. In Street Fighter JWong and Flash are amongst the names which goes to show the names this year are definitely of higher calibre. Esports fans are invited to vote for their favourite player from any of the game – with the All-Stars roster being announced in late June. The aim with the roster is to produce a documentary-style film on the All-Stars as well as having them stream on Bud Light’s Twitch channel every Thursday, from late June all the way through until December.
“We recognised the importance, scope and opportunity in esports, and we recognized the passion that many esports fans have for the players,” Eelco van der Noll, Vice President of Experiential Marketing at Anheuser-Busch told Forbes. “We have a long track record of working with properties of music, sports, all leagues except the NHL and esports is sort of an extension of that.”
He continues: “Esports is still relatively new and gives us an opportunity to engage with people we may not otherwise be able to reach.Our ultimate goal of course is to create brand affinity and brand preference so that people look more favourably to our Bud Light brand.”
Esports Insider says: Be interesting to see how this goes, there’s some relatively big names listed under each esport now – especially Scump who is a proverbial god in the Call of Duty world.