Brew Battle - Strategic Blogging by Budweiser & SABMiller
Your Fortune-500 company has news, a story to tell. Right now. The CEO wants the story told accurately...and first. After all, the first story to market has a higher probability of shaping other stories. The company news is legit, timely and of interest to key stakeholders.
So, why does the executive team decide not to "blast" the story to just about everyone on the planet in print and electronic journalism via subscription services like PR Newswire or BusinessWire? It's "what we've always done."
The answer: Because there's a more effective way.
Why not allow a blogger to "break" the story, first, before the so-called "mainstream" media?
Industrial giants Budweiser (NYSE:BUD) and SABMiller (LON:SAB OTC:SBMRY) recently
experienced this situation. With a surprising twist, as told by The
Wall Street Journal.
Who blogs about your company, who "breaks" your news --and, importantly, who disseminates your competitor's news, first.
In short, have a strategic online communications plan. And I'm not talking about an obligatory web site. It's more than that and, with some planning, quite do-able by...tomorrow.
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For All You Do, Bud,
This Blog Is About You
Miller Site Specializes
In News on Its Rival;
The Scoop on Lime Beer
By DAVID KESMODEL April 24, 2008; Page A1
MILWAUKEE -- Last month, beer reporter James Arndorfer broke a story that Anheuser-Busch
Cos. was readying a new brew called Budweiser American Ale. Trade
publications and Anheuser's hometown paper quickly chased the scoop.
With his dispatch, Mr. Arndorfer beat the giant
brewer's own publicity machine to the punch. Making the story more
irritating for Anheuser-Busch: Mr. Arndorfer's beer-news site is owned
by Bud's biggest rival.
Mr. Arndorfer, 37 years old, is a full-time employee of Miller Brewing Co., the U.S. arm of SABMiller
PLC. A former reporter for Advertising Age, he now runs Brew Blog, a
free Web site dedicated to breaking news about beer. Especially news
about Anheuser-Busch's beer.
Brew Blog is the latest and perhaps most unlikely
front in Miller's drive to rattle Anheuser. Mr. Arndorfer tracks the
St. Louis company's every move, from earnings reports to management
changes. He relishes revealing details of its products before Anheuser
does.
Though Mr. Arndorfer covers other brewers, he's
"fixated on A-B," says Harry Schuhmacher, editor of Beer Business
Daily, an online newsletter. Mr. Arndorfer responds: "They're the
industry leader. And they've been making a lot of news."
BREW NEWS
Below, excerpts from recent posts on the Brew Blog.
New Budweiser Line Extension on Tap?
Anheuser-Busch appears poised to roll out a craft-style line extension of its Budweiser brand.
The brewer has received
label approval from the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax
and Trade Bureau for Budweiser American Ale.
Bud American Ale has 5.1
percent alcohol by volume, according to label filings. A-B received
approvals for 12-ounce bottles and three sizes of barrels (half,
quarter and 1/6). Read more.
* * *
Budweiser Losing Distribution in Supermarkets
In recent years,
Budweiser has shown an uncanny ability to gain shelf space in
supermarkets and convenience stores even as its sales decline.
But performance finally appears to be catching up with Budweiser, at least in supermarkets. Read more.
* * *
Bud Light Lime Has More Carbs than Chill
Anheuser-Busch appears to be betting it can take share from Miller Chill with a higher-carb, higher-calorie knockoff.
Bud Light Lime, set to
hit the market in May, has 116 calories and 8 grams of carbohydrates,
according to label materials filed with the Treasury Department's
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Read more.
* * *
Bud Takes Shots at Crafts, Lights, Imports
In recent ads touting
Budweiser as "The Great American Lager," Anheuser-Busch manages to take
shots at crafts, imports and light beer -- even though A-B has
positions in all those areas.
In one ad,
actor-comedian Rob Riggle explains to a woman in a bar that Bud is less
heavy than an import yet has more taste than a light beer. Read more.
The corporate marketing battlefield has long been
strewn with pithy digs in ads and selective news leaks about others'
business woes. But it's unusual for a company to go to the trouble of
creating its own media arm to grind out news on the competition. While
the site lets Miller tweak its famously tight-lipped rival, it also
gives the company a platform to take a first crack at spinning industry
news.
"They are trying to aggressively go around the
gatekeepers" in newsrooms and the trade press, says Stephen Quigley, an
associate professor of public relations at Boston University. "It's
something you couldn't do five years ago," before the proliferation of
blogs.
Anheuser declined to answer specific questions about
Brew Blog or make an executive available for an interview. It wouldn't
say whether it considers the site a concern. "Our focus is on our
consumers and delivering great brands," Dave Peacock, Anheuser's vice
president of marketing, said in a statement.
Anheuser, which controls nearly 50% of the U.S. beer
market, and Miller, with less than 20%, have been duking it out for
decades. In the 1970s, some Anheuser employees wore "Miller Killers"
T-shirts. Some Miller employees have come to refer to Anheuser as the
Evil Empire.
In 2004, Anheuser ran ads portraying Miller Lite as
the "queen of carbs," prompting Miller to file a lawsuit. (The matter
was settled out of court.) Lately, Miller has been running ads showing
Dalmations, longtime Anheuser mascots, bolting from a barnful of
Clydesdales and chasing down a Miller truck.
The Beer Beat
Brew Blog is the brainchild of Paul Pendergrass and
Pete Marino, communications consultants for Miller who wanted the
brewer to have more influence over what's covered in the industry. In
2006, they recruited Mr. Arndorfer from Advertising Age and told him to
cover the sector like a beat reporter would.
The site reaches mostly beer-industry professionals,
Mr. Arndorfer says. It received about 24,000 visits in the month ending
April 10 -- representing more than 12,000 individual visitors --
according to Miller's statistics. Users on Miller's computer network
accounted for the most visits among corporations, with 1,675. Running
second: Anheuser, with 1,540 visits.
Messrs. Marino and Pendergrass say they've been gently
needled about the blog by Anheuser executives at industry events.
Anheuser public-relations officials have responded with pique to
reporters' follow-ups to Brew Blog items. "You know that's put out by
Miller, right?" an official told The Wall Street Journal.
Miller isn't sneaky about Brew Blog. Its home page
prominently states that the blog is "brought to you by the Miller
Brewing Co."
Mr. Arndorfer, a Milwaukee native, works in a spartan
office adjacent to Miller's 150-year-old brewery. He spends his days
calling industry sources, reading analyst reports and sifting through
public records.
In February, Mr. Arndorfer's industry sources were
telling him that Anheuser was planning a lime-flavored version of Bud
Light, the world's best-selling beer. He posted an article saying
Anheuser appeared poised to roll out a knockoff of Miller Chill, a
lime-and-salt-flavored brew launched by Miller last year.
The scoop, chased by this and other publications,
allowed Miller to paint Bud Light Lime as a "follower," says Nehl
Horton, Miller's senior vice president for communications. Anheuser
responded that it had begun considering such a brew in 2006, before
Miller Chill came out.
Mr. Arndorfer usually doesn't call Anheuser for that
sort of comment. "I called them a couple of times a long time ago," he
says. "I didn't hear back."
In March, Mr. Arndorfer was rummaging through an
online database when he noticed that Anheuser had received government
approval for a Budweiser American Ale label. Breaking the news about
the offering, he evoked recent Anheuser ads that disparaged ale-style
craft brews. "It's somewhat ironic A-B would roll out a Bud ale given
'Great American Lager' ads for Bud take shots at 'heavy' and 'cloudy'
beers."
Rosy Coverage
The same month, Brew Blog's coverage of Miller was
rosy. One entry highlighted how Miller won four "hot brand" awards from
trade journal Impact.
Mr. Arndorfer says he doesn't avoid negative stories
about Miller. He pointed to an October 2006 blog entry saying Miller
CEO Tom Long was "dissatisfied" with Miller Lite sales, as well as a
March 2007 report that the brewer was parting ways with a key ad agency.
The blog has enough influence that a staffer at a PR
agency for Anheuser pitched a story to Mr. Arndorfer about Budweiser's
Superbowl ads. A representative for Tecate, a Mexican beer, inquired
about running an ad on the site. Brew Blog doesn't take ads.
Not so crazy about the blog is Mr. Schuhmacher, the
editor and publisher of Beer Business Daily. Mr. Schuhmacher, who
charges $440 a year for his publication, declines to say how many
subscribers he has. "I tell Miller you're subsidizing a free
publication, and it hurts the trade press," he says. "But they don't
care."
Mr. Schuhmacher became angry when Miller bought ads to
run alongside Google searches for the keywords "Harry Schuhmacher" and
"Beer Business Daily" to drive visitors to Brew Blog. The brewer took
the ads down after he complained.
Mr. Schuhmacher adds that he writes fewer positive
pieces about Miller than he once did because he knows Brew Blog will
always publish the same stories. On a recent evening, a Miller
spokesman suggested he write about one of its newer brews, a
lemonade-flavored wheat beer called Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy.
"I said, 'You know what, give it to Brew Blog,'" Mr. Schuhmacher says.
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