When Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B), Miami, won the Molson Canadian beer account in the U.S. in 2002, the brand didn’t have much of a stateside image. "When we first got the account, it was a pretty interesting brand in that everyone had heard of them but nobody had an opinion about them, which is unusual," says Bill Wright, the creative director who heads up the account. "Usually if you’ve heard of something, you form some sort of opinion [about] whether you like it or not."
For CP+B, the primary objective became to reach Molson’s target market: guys in their early 20s, fresh out of college, just starting out in the world. "[The goal was] to make the brand relevant to them; to make it into something you feel good about holding up in a bar," explains Wright. "Beer is the ultimate ‘badge product’ because when you hold it up in a bar, it says something about you."
CP+B created a package of spots—"Peter," "VIP," "Temper" and "Promotion"—to send up certain ideas about the beer being a badge product, and Kuntz & Maguire—Tom and Mike, respectively—of bicoastal/international Morton Jankel Zander (MJZ) directed the ads.
"Peter," for example, riffs on the male fantasy-based beer commercial. The ad opens on people chatting in a bar. One woman turns away from the group, looks at the camera and, referring to the guy she’s standing next to, announces, "I’m giving Peter here the green light tonight because he’s drinking Molson." She goes on to say—in deadpan fashion—that even though Peter does things like stare at her chest and can’t remember her name, she still wants to hook up with him; if he drinks the Canadian import, he must be a cool guy. The tag: "Let Your Molson Do the Talking." The ad also features a tongue-in-cheek disclaimer: "Wacky fictional portrayal. Drinking Molson will not get you women, friend."
"We did the TV campaign as a way to pull back the curtain from other beer brands [that] make all these claims about what holding up a beer can do for you," says Wright. "We wanted to poke fun at that. What makes a person more desirable if they just hold up a beer? It’s kind of ridiculous."
Fun With Labels
Working in tandem with the "Let Your Molson Do the Talking" ads is a marketing effort involving labels that appear on the back of Molson’s 12 oz. bottles. The labels feature flirtatious icebreakers such as "Ouch, feel that spark" and "Let’s get to know each other first." Each one of the more than 230 labels was created so they "could instantly say something about you," according to Wright, who adds, "We didn’t have the time or the money to build awareness about Molson and let people in on what it stood for, so we took a shortcut and put the label on the back."
"Ron & Gary," directed by Frank Samuel of harvest, Santa Monica, explains the Molson labels. In the ad, Gary approaches his friend Ron in a bar, notices the label on Ron’s beer—"One-man bachelorette party"—and asks him why he’s switched from Molson to the oddly named lager. Ron informs him that he is drinking a bottle of Molson, and that the bottle features one of the beer company’s "twin" or second labels. Ron points out that one of the labels has worked well for Ted, who is sitting with a pair of very attentive women. Inspired, Gary asks the bartender for an "I’m getting freaky with Ron’s girlfriend and he doesn’t even know about it" lager. Ron is stunned as the barkeep responds, "Sorry. We’re all out."
The "twin labels" promotion has been successful, relates Wright. "I think the stat is that [Molson] is the fastest growing of the top twenty-five imports in America now," he says. In addition, Wright got a report that in one bar in the Northeast, people dressed up as their favorite twin label for Halloween. He’s also heard that customers are taking Molson bottles home from bars to keep as souvenirs. "[Anecdotes are pouring] in, which is pretty satisfying," he says.
Wright, who also oversees CP+B’s Compass Bank account and co-supervises, along with creative director Andrew Keller, the agency’s Virgin Atlantic Airways account, is already taking the next step in the Molson campaign. "We’re moving more into print so we can have a deeper conversation with people," he shares. "It’s really hard for us to compete on TV with bigger brands when we’re being outspent ten or twenty to one." For now, the campaign will continue in the form of print, radio, outdoor and, according to Wright, "some other surprises along the way too."
One glance at a recent pair of print ads reveals that they are as clever as the spots. Molson ran one ad in Cosmopolitan that featured a hunky guy holding a Molson and a pair of adorable puppies. The copy reads, "His address: The Intersection of Confidence and Compassion. His Beer: Molson Canadian." Simultaneously, another ad appeared in various men’s magazines informing male readers that "hundreds of thousands of women" have been "pre-programmed" by the ad in Cosmopolitan to desire men who drink Molson.
"Our whole strategy is ‘tools to help guys succeed,’ and so I think you’ll see a lot of that coming out," notes Wright. "We always say, ‘A lot of beers can put attractive women in their ads, but how many of them can put attractive women on your speed dial?’ "
