Labatt has scored a packaging coup in with its new aluminum bottle for Bud Light – a first for Canada – and is debuting the sexy new bottle in a high-impact OOH campaign focusing only on Quebec.
The campaign, with media by Montreal-based Marketel and creative by Publicis in Montreal, hit the city’s major traffic routes and subway this week, using large-format billboards and backlit transit posters to heighten the drama of the creative. The posters and billboards use a ‘night’ theme to highlight the midnight-blue and silver look of the bottle, and the backlit transit ads were perfect for it, says Luis Areas, channel strategist, Marketel.
The focus on OOH was a matter of both impact and practicality, he further explains. ‘We had to turn this around quickly because we wanted to be in market as soon as possible, so we couldn’t go into shooting a TV spot as well. Visually OOH was a good choice, because it’s a sexy bottle, it’s very appealing, and we wanted to make sure consumers could have a good look at it.’
The urgent push to market with the campaign was to both capitalize on the upcoming NHL playoffs, Areas says, and to establish the aluminum bottle as an innovation Labatt brought to market. The bottles have been available in the US for several years, but this will mark the first time they will be available here.
‘This is a niche that we own,’ he says. ‘Our competitors don’t have this bottle yet.’
The campaign will run for four weeks in Montreal and Quebec City.
