Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD), the beer behemoth that owns very close to 50% of the U.S. beer market, spent quite a lot on advertising in this year's Super Bowl. But a "surprise" shout-out by the winning quarterback, Peyton Manning, may have brought more value than any of their expensive ads.
AB-InBev owns not just Budweiser and Bud Light, but also Michelob Ultra and Shock Top. Michelob got the very first ad that aired after kickoff: a spot called "Breathe" that might have been mistaken for a Gatorade commercial with its montage of people working out. The fact that it was a beer ad proved to be a twist, but it was otherwise unremarkable.
For Shock Top, the company used the comedic actor T.J. Miller from HBO's "Silicon Valley." He speaks to the orange wedge that adorns the top of Shock Top draught taps in bars. In a clever digital extension of the ad, Miller reviews other Super Bowl ads in a YouTube video posted after the game.
The game's only Bud Light ad, 60-seconds long, used actors Seth Rogen, Amy Schumer and Michael Peña and did not appear to be the instant viral hit the brand likely hoped.
For Budweiser, the company ran two spots. One, a full minute long, showed the actor Helen Mirren giving a lecture on drunk-driving. The other ad flashed the iconic Clydesdale horses, but with nary a cute puppy or emotional song. Instead, phrases like "NOT SMALL" and "NOT IMPORTED" stamped the screen, with a man flicking an orange wedge off his beer glass -- seemingly a jab at craft beers. The irony of running an ad like that is that AB-InBev has been a frequent buyer of craft breweries, and only minutes before, it had advertised Shock Top, a craft brand.
In iSpot.tv's final leaderboard of the winning advertisements (the site measures both views and social shares), none of these ads cracked the top five. Budweiser's Helen Mirren spot landed at No. 6, and Bud Light squeezed in at No. 10. For what AB-InBev spent this year (likely around $35 million, since it had three 30-second ads and two 60-second ads), you can bet it hoped for better results. It is especially disappointing for the company when compared with its winning results in the past few years, as the combination of Clydesdales and puppies has repeatedly landed well. (An annual CBS special, "Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials," labeled the 2013 Budweiser spot "Brotherhood" the greatest Super Bowl ad of all time.)
So it was a gift from the football gods when Peyton Manning, in his interview on the field immediately after the game, told reporter Tracy Wolfson, "I'm going to drink a lot of Budweiser." Later, he plugged the brand yet again in a press conference.
An AB-InBev spokesperson tweeted that Manning wasn't paid to plug the beer, but "we were surprised and delighted that he did."
Delighted indeed: Apex MG Analytics estimated that each mention brought Budweiser $1.6 million worth of brand value. That means Manning handed the brand $3.2 million in exposure, which nearly pays back the $4.8 million it spent on its 30-second Budweiser ad.
Hi Internet. For the record, Budweiser did not pay Peyton Manning to mention Budweiser tonight. We were surprised and delighted that he did.
— Lisa Weser (@LisaWeser) February 8, 2016
Some fans were skeptical that Manning didn't have an incentive, especially because the pitchman reportedly has an ownership stake in two Budweiser distributors. But any noise around his spontaneous shill likely doesn't bother Bud, which got to be the final brand on viewers' minds as they headed to bed.
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Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology.
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