By Sarah Handy, Staff Writer
Busch Beer, the “Official Beer of NASCAR” has won the 2019 Marketing Achievement Award and will be awarded at the NASCAR Industry Reception during NASCAR’s Championship’s Week in Nashville.
The company returned as an official partner in NASCAR in 2018 and has leveraged its Busch Pole Award platform in addition to its partnership with the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford driven by Kevin Harvick. They’ve been able to create content throughout the race season and drive fan and media engagement around the Busch Beer brand itself.
“We take great pride in creating new and surprising ways to engage NASCAR fans throughout the year, so being honored with this award is a special achievement for our team,” said Nick Kelly, vice president partnerships, beer category and community, Anheuser-Busch in a press release. “Our partnership with NASCAR and the industry at-large has allowed us to do what we do best, deliver creative marketing that resonates with fans and drives consumption of crisp, refreshing Busch Beer.”
This past February to celebrate 40 years of Busch Beer at the DAYTONA 500, Busch Beer developed the #Car2Can promotion for a chance to win one of 40 limited-edition Busch Beer cans. The cans were created from Kevin Harvick’s No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing.
Fans watching the DAYTONA 500 on Fox were given the chance to “watch and win” with on-screen social media trivia contest using the #Car2Can promotion hashtags. The social media campaign accumulated more than 44 thousand mentions and 67 million impressions around the DAYTONA 500.
“Busch Beer continues to successfully drive consumer engagement by creatively integrating its assets from across all levels of its NASCAR sponsorship,” said Jill Gregory, executive vice president and chief marketing and content officer, NASCAR in a press release. “Hats off to our partners for galvanizing our brand-loyal fans across the season, and cheers to all they have in store for 2020.”
With Harvick not winning the 2018 Championship Busch Beer created a “millennial-inspired” design for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race in May. It was a one-of-a-kind paint scheme featuring millennial phrases. Fans themselves voted for words such as “yeet”, “turnt left”and “squadgoals” which adorned Harvick’s pink Ford Mustang.
The revealing of the campaign featured Harvick as he learned the meaning of each phrase featured on his race car. The campaign generated nearly 100 million digital and social impressions.
At Talladega Superspeedway the company brought back its successful Busch Flannel Ford Mustang which featured an outdoor-inspired look.
As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs were heating up, Busch Beer created a slapstick campaign around fellow Cup Series driver Kyle Busch getting “free” advertising through it’s Stewart-Haas Racing sponsorship. Busch Beer went all in on Harvick as they replaced “Busch” inside its logo with “Harvick”. The company had a strong media campaign with its slapstick campaign including fan merchandise featuring “Harvick” instead of “Busch” as well as special Busch Beer cans sold at the concession stands.
In addition, the Busch Pole Award saw 14 different winners during the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.
This is the first time that Anheuser-Busch has been awarded the NASCAR Marketing Achievement Award. Previous winners in the category include Comcast, Coca-Cola, Fox Sports and NBC Sports, Mars Incorporated, Mobil 1 and Toyota.
NASCAR Championship Week in Nashville will conclude on Thursday evening with the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Awards at 8 p.m. ET on NBCSN.