Kenny G Helps Busch Light Go Local for Super Bowl Sunday
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAnheuser-Busch is counting on smooth-jazz impresario Kenny G to add a few new notes to an increasingly appealing strategy for beer advertisers around the Super Bowl.When the musician sounds his interpretation of a jingle for Busch Light beer that has been around since the late 1970s, he won’t do so in a national commercial during the Big Game, slated to air February 13 on NBC.
Instead, he will play in a 30-second ad spot set to appear on local TV stations showing the event in 41 different markets. The song tells of a beer that “is cold and it’s smooth and it’s waiting for you,” and Kenny G believes it plays right into his wheelhouse.“A beer that is full of smoothness?” he asks. “Who else but me should be the one who talks about it?” Anheuser-Busch is the exclusive beer sponsor of the Super Bowl and will have plenty of national pitches for suds, but local ads often present a more cost-effective way to get the word out about a variety of products.
Brewers are increasingly making use of the technique to keep costs down and, in some cases, get around Anheuser’s effort to put an advertising blockade around the Big Game.Boston Beer is also relying on local ads this year, running a spot in 13 different markets that uses a robot to tout Sam Adams Wicked Hazy IPA.
The local strategy isn’t new – Pabst Brewing Co., Heineken and Miller Brewing have embraced it in years past – but the brewers really poured it on last year.
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