MillerCoors is rolling out a new set of print and billboard ads aimed at educating consumers about its company vision and values.
The “We Stand for Beer” campaign is set to launch on July 6 in eight U.S. markets where the company operates brewing facilities, including Golden, Colo., Irwindale, Calif., and Fort Worth, Tex., among others.
The new ads, which will cost in the “high six figures,” highlight three core tenets of MillerCoors’ corporate philosophy: job creation, sustainability and community investment.
“This is something that has been in the works for quite a while,” said Jonathan Stern, a company spokesman. “Millennial consumers really want to know about a company’s values. We feel it is important to tell these stories in our brewery markets and we want to remind people of some of the flagship products in those markets.”
Three of the organization’s top brands — Coors Light, Miller Lite and Coors Banquet – will be featured in the ads. In the most recent IRI MULC scans, through July 14, sales of Coors Light are basically flat – down 0.1 percent. Both Miller Lite and Coors Banquet are up, 2.2 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, according to the market research firm.
Developed by ad agency Jacobson Rost, the branding campaign shines a spotlight on MillerCoors’ corporate philosophies for the first time since SABMiller and Molson Coors formed the joint venture in 2008. The campaign, Stern said, also builds on the company’s broader strategy of promoting “quality.”
“We’re really stepping up our efforts in talking about quality,” Stern said. “Quality is at the heart of everything we do. We are making a big push this year to talk about our world class beers, our world class brewers and our quality partnerships.”
Indeed, MillerCoors actually teased the new slogan in a tweet on February 2, following Anheuser-Busch InBev’s now infamous Super Bowl ad, “Brewed the Hard Way.” That commercial took aim at craft beer drinkers who “fussed over” smaller-batch products.
“Quality isn’t something that belongs to a single style of beer or a single brewer,” the company said in a statement at the time. “It belongs to all of the people who deliver on the promise of consistently brewing and distributing the highest-quality, best-tasting beers in the world.”
MillerCoors’ new campaign, which will run over the next four months, also coincides with today’s departure of CEO Tom Long. Molson Coors CFO Gavin Hattersley will step in as interim CEO on Wednesday while the company searches for a permanent replacement.