Anheuser-Busch
BEST BUDS
To celebrate Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina's final season and their all-time battery record, we created the Best Buds campaign for Budweiser. They were not only great teammates but also best friends through all 17 seasons together. What's a better way to celebrate this accomplishment than with your best friend and an ice-cold Budweiser.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Budweiser. It was the perfect storm of fandom, hitting Budweiser’s main passion point in their hometown. We started working on this project as soon as Yadier Molina signed for another year with the Cardinals. I ideated and pitched this full 360º campaign to the Budweiser team. We decided to break up this campaign into 3 distinctive pulse moments over the course of the season. Each with the ability to sustain the overall campaign and give it a little bit of extra juice to break through.
CREATIVE DIRECTION | STRATEGY | TV COMMERCIAL | ILLUSTRATION | PACKAGE DESIGN | OOH | MERCH DESIGN | STADIUM SIGNAGE | POCM
THE BEST FRIENDS
Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina are more than just teammates, they are each other’s best friends. They have neighboring vacation homes and do the holidays together. Which is why on June 8th, National Best Friends Day we launched the National TV commercial.
The spot depicts their friendship on and off the diamond. We worked with the MLB and their archives to find clips of them both through the years. Since all these clips were collected from different sources, they looked different so to unify them we color-corrected and added some visual effects to make it feel a bit like an old home movie. We then cut these clips together and added powerful supers to tell the story of their friendship. We also recorded an epic guitar version of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”, that crescendo when the two best friends cheer a Budweiser.
THE CAN
In July of their final season together. We launched phase 2 with a limited edition 25oz Budweiser can. Available exclusively in the St. Louis area. When designing it I kept the iconic Budweiser red and crest intact. I then illustrated two large portraits of Wainwright and Molina, that would flank the can in shades of Budweiser red. I also added an illustration of Busch Stadium and a portrait of them embracing each other on the bottom third of the can. Using mostly blue tones to create depth. We then replaced most of the type on the crest to include easter eggs that further told the story of their friendship.
To help launch the cans, we filmed their reaction to seeing themselves on the can for the first time. Which we cut together and posted on all our social channels. We also designed all the custom POCM and other trade assets to help promote these cans in store and on premise.
THE RECORD
We had our final pulse when they broke the record and released the final pieces of social content. The hero was a video of them thanking the city of St. Louis and all the Cardinal fans for their love and support throughout their careers.
On the day of the record-breaking game, we took over the stadium. We put Best Buds signage over the exterior of the stadium and the bars in Baseball Village. We even animated custom graphics that took over the stadium’s screens when the record was broken. We bought up plenty of Out-Of-Home signage around St. Louis.
Then during the post-game conference, we were able to get the cans on the table to forever be a part of this historic moment.
