Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch) - Marketing

Marketing

Anheuser-Busch uses what is in many jurisdictions a legally-protected mark-of-origin indicating Czech provenance and humorous advertising campaigns to promote Budweiser, such as the "Real Men of Genius" radio and television commercials for Bud Light.

The Budweiser from Budějovice has been called "The Beer of Kings" since the 16th century. Adolphus Busch changed this slogan to "The King of the Beers". The Czech Budweiser is sold in some countries as Budejovicky Budvar but is known as Budweiser in many other countries throughout the world.

Some Bud advertising campaigns have entered the popular culture in the United States. They include a long line of TV advertisements in the 1990s featuring three frogs named "Bud", "Weis", and "Er", the Budweiser Ants, and a campaign built around the phrase "Whassup?".

Anheuser-Busch is known for its sport sponsorship, video game sponsorship (Tapper), and humorous advertisements. Advertising campaigns have also included lizards impersonating the "Bud-weis-er" frogs, and a team of Clydesdale horses commonly known as the Budweiser Clydesdales.

The Budweiser brand is promoted in motorsports, from Bernie Little's Miss Budweiser hydroplane boat to sponsoring the Budweiser King Top Fuel Dragster driven by Brandon Bernstein. Anheuser-Busch has sponsored the CART championship, and top NASCAR teams such as Junior Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports and DEI. Budweiser is the official beer of NHRA and was the official beer of NASCAR until 2007. In 2008, Anheuser-Busch became Kasey Kahne's primary sponsor, and has also sponsored many races, including the Budweiser Shootout, and previously The Bud at the Glen, Budweiser 500, and Budweiser 400. In 2011, Budweiser became the sponsor for Kevin Harvick.

Anheuser-Busch has placed Budweiser as an official partner and sponsor of Major League Soccer and Los Angeles Galaxy and was the headline sponsor of the British Basketball League in the 1990s, taking over from rival company Carlsberg. Anheuser-Busch has also placed Budweiser as an official sponsor of the Premier League.

In the early 20th century, the company commissioned a play-on-words song called Under the Anheuser Bush, which was recorded by several early phonograph companies. Popular music continues to be used in advertisements for Budweiser. Some commercials feature the song "Galvanize", by The Chemical Brothers.

In August 2009 Anheuser-Busch partnered with popular Chinese video-sharing site, Tudou.com for a user-generated online video contest. The contest encourages users to suggest ideas that include ants for a Bud TV spot set to run in February 2010 during the Chinese New Year.

In 2010, Budweiser launched an international entertainment property called Bud United. Bud United’s first efforts were centered around the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The brand launched an online reality TV series called Bud House that followed the lives of 32 international football fans (one representing each nation in the World Cup) living together in a house in South Africa. Bud United’s next project is another reality series called The Big Time. Each episode of The Big Time will focus on a different vertical (Baseball, Soccer, Cooking etc.…) and will feature contestants competing for a chance to live their dreams. The show is being cast through the Bud United Facebook page and will air in Q1 2012.

On November 5, 2012, Anheuser-Busch asked Paramount Pictures to obscure or remove the Budweiser logo from the film Flight, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Denzel Washington.