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Last month, Anheuser-Busch trumpeted its plans to give away beer once 70% of American adults are (at least partially) vaccinated, a goal it hoped the country would meet in time for July 4 celebrations. While the US hasn’t hit that milestone quite yet, the beer giant is making good on its promise this weekend anyway.
It got us wondering: How many brews will Anheuser-Busch actually hand out? We asked Dan Jahn, CEO and president of Probability—an agency that specializes in contests, promotions, and sweepstakes—to weigh in.
He called it a “really smart campaign,” since it’s likely most people won’t actually take advantage of the deal (more on that below), but they will see the company’s “free beer for all” messaging.
- For starters, you can’t just walk into a bar and grab a free beer. To get one, Anheuser-Busch asks people to sign up for its loyalty program + upload a photo of themselves at their “favorite place to grab a beer.” In return, they get a $5 digital gift card. “There’s going to be drop-off after every step,” Jahn told Marketing Brew, guessing that only tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of Americans will actually submit a photo. And only a fraction of them will take the extra step of redeeming it somewhere, he predicted.
- Jahn also noted that the company requires you to opt in to marketing emails when signing up for its loyalty program. “Of course, you can opt out at any time, but those are huge benefits that I would imagine are going to help to convert new customers to Anheuser-Busch,” he told us.
Bottom line: Jahn described the push as a “huge marketing and PR win” because the “perceived cost of the giveaway to consumers is exponentially more than the actual cost to Anheuser-Busch.”—MS