Hispanics are a key target consumer base for Miller Lite’s Marketing Strategy as Hispanic beer drinkers spend a higher percentage of their alcohol beverage dollars on beer than any other ethnic group at 45%, according to Nielsen data. Portada interviewed Catherine Pastiak, Associate Marketing Manager for Miller Lite at Molson Coors, to understand all components (including PR, paid social and influencer marketing) of the recent Give Back 12-Pack integrated marketing campaign. According to Pastiak, the initiative also provides a sneak peek of what’s to come for Miller Lite’s marketing.
Based in Chicago, Catherine Pastiak is an Associate Marketing Manager on the Miller Lite brand team for Molson Coors. Pastiak handles creative and strategy and focuses on driving growth with the U.S. Latino consumer. Not only do Hispanics spend a higher percentage of their alcohol beverage dollars on beer than any other ethnic group at 45%, according to Nielsen data, they also over-index in premium lights, which account for 28% of the beer volume Latinos purchase. An overarching theme in Pastiak’s job is to develop inclusive programming for Miller Lite campaigns. “Any new campaign needs to be relevant to the 21-34 year old Latino drinker,” Pastiak notes. As an example of a Miller Lite Hispanic integrated marketing, Pastiak explained the recent Miller Lite Give Back 12-Pack marketing initiative. According to Pastiak, this initiative also provides a sneak peek of how Miller Lite’s marketing and advertising will look like in the future.
Miller Lite Marketing Strategy: The Give Back 12-Pack Initiative
To help bring relief to the Latino community during the past holidays, Pastiak helped launch the Miller Lite Give Back 12-Pack initiative which included the below three components.
- From December 15 to December 31, 2021 beer drinkers who were 21+ could visit MillerLite.com/GiveBack12Pack for a chance to win their very own Give Back 12-Pack. Participants filled out a registration form at the site which included the opportunity to opt-in to receive future communications from Miller Lite. A total 2,000 Give Back 12-Pack gifts were awarded.
- Miller Lite also donated an additional US $50,000 to UnidosUS, the United States’s largest Latino nonprofit advocacy organization, to ensure Latino communities across the country have access to food and local resources for the holidays.
Integrated Campaign
The integrated campaign to support the Give Back 12-Pack gifts had the following components:
- Earned media through PR
- Influencer Marketing
- Targeted Email Marketing
- Paid Social
- In-store (Distributors provided tools for retailers nationwide)
Miller Lite Marketing Partners
Miller Lite needed to make sure that communication and advertising to the Latino consumer was efficient and engaging. This included PR materials (provided by Miller Lite partner IFC Next), creative (through DDB owned multicultural creative agency Alma) and media buying through Publicis Connect Media Agency. The sweepstakes execution, including fulfillment, was handled by Prizelogic.
Influencer Marketing
To bring awareness about the program, Miller Lite conducted a media relations campaign and partnered with notable Latino influencers to spread the word.
According to Pastiak, influencer marketing was a very important piece of the program.
“It was an opportunity to show that Miller Lite is going to continue to support the Latino community. That is why we love programs that have that community support element, build relationships with influencers and engage with the community,” Pastiak adds.
Six Influencers
For this important component of Miller Lite marketing, the company partnered with six Hispanic influencers who each created unique content on Instagram and YouTube.
The influencers Miller Lite partnered with for the campaign included:
- Julio Macias: A Mexican–American actor. He appears on Netflix’s On My Block and Selena: The Series.
- Lupillo Rivera – An internationally renowned Regional Mexican musician.
- Julissa Calderon: An Afro-Latina actress, writer, and comedy producer/director. She was recently seen on Gentefied.
- Darlene Demorizi – An online/TV personality and writer. She’s been a host on Vice and has a segment on Fuse called “Like, Share, Dímelo with Sasha & Dee.”
- Gadiel Del Orbe – Influencer and speaker known for his work on BuzzFeed’s Pero Like.
- Eli Vazquez – Filmmaker, producer on BuzzFeed’s Pero Like and founder of #SelfHype+Hype Media House.
The influencer program was managed by ICF Next. All Influencers were bilingual and posted in whatever language they found it more interesting to communicate. They were provided a creative brief and the right legal language. If the social media platform allowed for it they always linked to the landing page.
- Each influencer highlighted how Miller Lite brought some relief to U.S. Latinos over the holidays by giving away $50,000 worth of food and beer and US $50,000 to UnidosUS.
- They showcased how, with the Give Back 12-Pack, beer drinkers could create a “Nochebuena meal” and pair it with Miller Lite. They also directed their followers to MillerLite.com/GiveBack12Pack to enter for a chance to win one of 2,000 gifts of $25.
See below examples for messaging by influencer Lupillo Rivera. - YouTube
Miller Lite Marketing: Paid Social
Separate of the influencer campaign, Miller Lite Marketing run advertisements across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter highlighting the program run. Creative was developed by Alma and media was planned and bought by Pubiicis’ Connect Media. Creative distributed through Facebook and Instagram was either in English or Spanish. For the Twitter promotion English was used. Videos were animated in all cases and included a splash in the first 3 seconds.
The Results
- For the Miller Lite Give Back 12-Pack program, the brand saw above benchmark engagement on paid social content across both English and Spanish.
- Thanks to a targeted, bilingual approach, the Give Back 12-Pack email campaign saw the brand’s second highest open and click rates of the year.
- Offering a landing page in both English and Spanish increased unique visitors by more than 25%.
- Through the influencer focus, Miller Lite was able to begin forging relationships with some of the most popular Latino voices across the entertainment industry.
- Increase in Miller Lite opt-in email database
For an example of a heavily Hispanic oriented community program, please check out How Envoy Mortgage does community engagement that impacts people lives.
