Immediately after 12am EST on Tuesday morning, a handful of media started reporting on Anheuser-Busch’s big new beer launch for 2013: Budweiser Black Crown.
USA Today was first:
For the second consecutive year, Anheuser-Busch InBev will serve up a new brew to Super Bowl viewers. The beer giant will tout its just-out Budweiser Black Crown brand during the Feb. 3 Super Bowl XLVII. The new beer is scheduled to be on sale nationwide by Jan. 21. Last year, A-B introduced another new brand, Bud Light Platinum, to the massive audience watching the Big Game.
Bud Light Platinum’s success is well-documented so it is hard to blame AB for recycling the formula.
CNBC also sent out a couple tweets about the new beer early Tuesday:
A look at the six-pack labeling for Bud's latest #beer: Budweiser Black Crown, a 6% abv lager. pic.twitter.com/s54YP2Cz
— CNBCBrewNewsman (@CNBCBeerNews) January 8, 2013
Budweiser Black Crown was one of the three beers featured in the Project 12 sampler pack this Fall. pic.twitter.com/0yvKtHtx
— CNBCBrewNewsman (@CNBCBeerNews) January 8, 2013
Anheuser-Busch quietly created pages for the beer on both Facebook and Twitter within the past week.
In a bit of a bizarre marketing twist, the company appears to be building a social media campaign around the hashtag ‘#tasteis’ with the message, “Taste is making an entrance 02.03.13.” It serves as a double entendre. A-B is aiming this beer at the same crowd that went out and tried Platinum after last year’s launch, as in those with “exquisite taste.” Then you have a crowd of people who are anti-AB and will associate the messaging with the idea that the company is only now, in 2013, playing with this critical component in beer known as flavor.
Platinum’s ‘#makeitplatinum’ campaign showed that building a campaign around a hashtag, especially during the Super Bowl, can be a gamble as some attach negative messages to the hashtag. This year’s choice may be even more of a gamble as the company is putting a lot of faith in people to fill in the blank positively…
“#tasteis ___________.”
Expect to see more press on the beer during the day on Tuesday. We’ll keep you updated.
#tasteis…………. not this garbage