How Bud Light and Michelob Ultra are aiming to stand out during the Super Bowl

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s 33-year run as the Super Bowl’s exclusive alcohol advertiser ended in 2022, but the company still has a dominant presence on advertising’s biggest stage.

How dominant? Well, this year, the brewer bought up two and a half minutes of Super Bowl ad time, making it the biggest beer and alcohol advertiser in this year’s game, according to a statement from the company. The time will be split among the brands Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, and Budweiser, which will return with its ever-iconic Clydesdales.

Execs from Bud Light and Michelob Ultra told us that Super Bowl strategy hasn’t changed much since the end of their parent company’s exclusivity, though there’s no denying that the field is a little more crowded: 2024 Super Bowl viewers will see at least one ad from competitor Molson Coors this year. But a little competition is nothing new for Bud Light and Michelob Ultra, and the veteran Super Bowl brands have learned a thing or two about standing out among the crowd over the years.

“We are consistently bringing the very best plans, the very best creative that these brands deserve, that Michelob Ultra deserves,” Ricardo Marques, VP of marketing for Michelob Ultra, told Marketing Brew. “The competition, for us, really is every single brand out there across different industries, because there’s a lot of conversation. There’s a lot of noise around the Super Bowl.”

With great (star) power comes great responsibility

Both brands’ appearance in the game has been pretty much a given. Each showed up last year (and many years prior), and Bud Light, which despite having a rough year in 2023, is the NFL’s official beer sponsor. For Bud Light, the Super Bowl represents the brand’s biggest push yet in a campaign that aims to help it recover from last year’s boycotts over its partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

“We knew we were going to be in from the beginning,” Todd Allen, SVP of marketing for Bud Light, said, while Marques said it’s “the default” for Michelob Ultra to have a Super Bowl presence.

That leaves plenty of time for creative brainstorming and casting. Bud Light’s ad will feature three stars: Peyton Manning, who has already been featured in the brand’s NFL playoffs campaign; Post Malone, who’s making his third Super Bowl ad appearance for Bud Light; and Dana White, the president of UFC, which currently has a sponsorship deal with the brand. The spot will introduce a new fictional character: The Bud Light Genie, who Allen said will continue to appear in content throughout the year.

Michelob Ultra’s ad, meanwhile, stars soccer legend Leo Messi, as well as Dan Marino and actor Jason Sudeikis. Plus, there’s a non-celebrity dog, which means chances are the ad will perform well, at least according to a few Super Bowl ad pros.

Budweiser’s campaign, as usual, will heavily feature Clydesdale horses, according to its parent company, both on TV and on the ground in Las Vegas.

Cherry on top

The beer brands aren’t relying on the power of celebrity alone to win over Super Bowl viewers, and both worked cultural pillars outside of the NFL into their campaigns.

For Michelob Ultra, the spot highlights the other football (soccer), which is “about to enter a golden era in the US market,” according to Marques. Teaming up with an athlete and showing him in action is a way to help convey the brand’s positioning as beer for people with active lifestyles, he added. Bud Light, which chose to incorporate the music world and UFC into its ad, is aiming to position the brand as “the beer of easy enjoyment,” Allen said. Its Super Bowl creative is all about making life as easy as possible.

Both brands are activating off-screen. The day before the game, Michelob Ultra is hosting an event at Topgolf in Las Vegas that will feature athletes like Marino and Alex Morgan, as well as musicians Lil Wayne, T-Pain, and Alesso. Bud Light is putting on a show the day before that with Zach Bryan and Leon Bridges, and will advertise on the Las Vegas Sphere from Feb. 5 through the Super Bowl, according to Allen. There’s also an integration with Facebook Messenger that lets users chat with the Bud Light Genie, he said.

The goal of both campaigns is to blast their core brand messages to the hundred million or so fans who tune in. And of course, driving sales and conversations wouldn’t hurt, Marques said.

“We’ve been doing Super Bowl advertising since 1983, so we know how important this stage is,” Allen said. “We’re just focused on putting the fans first in our creative [and] delivering unparalleled access to these epic experiences.”