Old Milwaukee Beer

Situation:

Old Mil was a tired and ugly old brand marketed in Canada by Sleeman’s.

Insight:

‘Value’ beer is typically associated with crappy taste. Men may drink it at home, but because of the association with ‘cheap swill’ they don’t want to be seen drinking it in public, or offering it to their friends. To that end, we helped change the liquid, the packaging and the advertising. The campaign, ‘Good beer. Strangely inexpensive’ was born.

Effects:

In the first six months, sales went through the roof, so much so, that the shareholders got nervous because lower margin Old Milwaukee was taking up half of the national brewers overall capacity. The campaign was shelved, much to the glee of Labatt and Molson, who then launched, or purchased their own value brands, such as Lakeport.