It’s Miller Time Campaign
Miller Lite
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
DDB Chicago
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer, DDB Worldwide Ari Weiss Chief Creative Officer, DDB Chicago John Maxham SVP, Group Creative Director Myra Nussbaum Associate Creative Director, Art Director Nick Howard Associate Creative Director, Copywriter Nick Stoner
Production Team
Chief Production Officer Diane Jackson Executive Producer Keith Jamerson Sr Producer Adam Battista Producer Meghan Gross Executive Art Producer Suzanne Koller Sr Project Manager Jen Polan President & CCO, Haygarth DDB Michael Lovegrove Executive Creative Director, Haygarth DDB Sabrina Diez
Other Credits
SVP, Group Account Director Kiska Howell Account Directors Samantha Hickey, Katelyn Ledford Account Executives Raleigh Ward, Lauren Remar Chief Strategy Officer, DDB North America Eric Zuncic Chief Strategy Officer, DDB Chicago Tricia Russo SVP, Group Planning Director Adam Crandall Senior Strategist Jonathan Palmer Client CMO Michelle St. Jacques VP, Miller Family of Brands Portfolio Anup Shah Marketing Director Courtney Bryant Senior Marketing Manager Alan Bremerkamp
Date
October 2019
Background
In today’s world, perception has become more powerful than reality. Many people prioritise moments that impress over moments that matter. In fact, more than 50% of U.S. millennials have missed an important moment because they were trying to capture it on social media.
That’s why there’s never been a more important time to get back to communicating face-to-face. When someone is in the moment with friends, enjoying a beer, they create true connections. This campaign was created to remind people of just how important that is.
Idea
With so many young drinkers focused on their phones, Miller Time wanted to champion a different kind of social occasion: a genuine, face-to-face moment, best enjoyed over the ‘Original Light Beer’.
The idea was to remind young Americans that Miller Time, having a beer with friends, was really the ‘Original Social Media.’ The anthem spot, “Followers”, dramatised what the world would look like if everyone’s followers followed them, literally. It showed how followers are easily distracted by sneaker drops or demolition selfies or a cute puppy, stopping to get a good picture.
The hero ditched every last follower to meet up with his real friends in a bar.
To really put their money where their mouth is, Miller Lite took a break from their own social media channels for two weeks to make more time for Miller Time. They even rewarded people with a round of Miller Lite on them if they unfollowed them on their social media accounts.
Because they were going dark in social media, they launched a limited-edition ‘dark’ can.
Results
The campaign garnered over one billion impressions.
Awareness of the brand was up 78%, word of mouth up 96%, positive impressions up 14%, consideration up 87% and current buyers up 162%.
Our Thoughts
It is the paradox of modern technology, that you can have hundreds of friends but no mates, you can talk to people but never have a conversation.
Neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, Professor of Physiology at Oxford, says that with the smartphone we are living in the single largest uncontrolled social experiment in history. It is a brave strategy to addicts about their addiction, which is what Miller Lite is doing here. What I particularly like is the brand took its own advice and took a two-week break from posting on social media (braver would have been longer) and invited its 119,000 Instagram followers and two million Facebook friends to unfollow them.