Molson Coors is distributing merit badges Boy Scout-style for its Canadian brand’s summer campaign, but rather than reward beer drinkers for fire-building and knot-tying, it’s taking a more Canadian summer holiday approach.
The campaign, called “Seize the Summer,” was conceived by agency of record CP+B Canada (formerly Zig). It centres on a Facebook application whereby participants get digital badges for activities such as cooking meat over a fire, going to a midway or attending a few select regional events.
After signing up, consumers verify completing these tasks either with a photo, by having a friend confirm or using their smartphone with GPS technology to tag their location.
For every badge achieved, brand fans are entered into a weekly draw for one of 16 “fly away” travel prizes to events like CFL games and music festivals.
“Our goal is to use those fly-aways to show the experiences that our winners have had, and that the winners are everyday folks,” said John Francis, brand manager for Molson Canadian.
The Canadian summer television ads drive viewers to the brand’s Facebook page, a first for the brand, which usually steers beer drinkers to MolsonCanadian.ca.
An online video explaining the badge app is running across an online media buy, while promotional inserts have been placed in beer cases, and the company is marketing to its database of customer contacts as well.
New badges will be added to the current roster of 45. Frances suggested Corn Boil and Lobster Boil versions may soon be available.
“Seize the Summer” is the latest installment of Canadian’s “Made From Canada” brand platform, launched late last year to bolster the brand’s ties to the country of its birth. “As we fast-forwarded to the brief [for the summer campaign], the insight was based on the fact that Canadians really run towards summer… We sent that to Zig and they came back with a body of work that had this app as the centerpiece. It’s really an opportunity to put our consumer at the centre of our campaign.”
Molson Canadian has been a strong presence on Facebook this year, finding success with its hockey jersey application during the Vancouver Winter Olympics. When the badge app launched in June, Canadian had approximately 370,000 fans on its Facebook page. That number currently stands at approximately 404,000.
