THE BEER

BATTLE

A SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ANALYSIS

Miller Lite

Bud Light

Megan Kingsley

March 2nd 2017

TABLE OF

CONTENTSMILLER LITE VS BUD LIGHT

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MARKET OVERVIEWTHE BEER BUSINESS

America has great taste, especially in beer. Whether you're meeting a friend or heading to a game, a majority of Americans enjoy

doing every day life with a drink or two in their hands. Beer is the world's oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic drink, and the

third most popular drink overall. Anheuser Busch InBev owns Bud Light, while the rival Molson Coors owns Miller Lite. The rivalry

between these two cause them to hold a majority of the market due to their advertising and loyal consumers. Bud Light owns 28.3% of

the U.S. Market Share while its competitor, Miller Lite, owns about 9.3% of the U.S. Market Share. The beer industry in general is

constantly growing, and is expected to reach $890.3 billion by 2025. At the end of 2015, there were over 4,000 breweries in the U.S.,

which is a new record. Both of these brands battle for the heart and end purchase of the consumer by utilizing mulitple social media

platforms to reach their target audience. Throughout this paper, I will talk through the various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, and YouTube, used by Miller Lite and Bud Light to evaluate their effectiveness and decide who wins the ultimate beer

battle. Below are some statistics shared by the Beer Institute from 2014.

Contributed

$256 BillionWages totaled

$79 billion

Over 1.75 million

employed

$48.5 billion

in tax revenue3

BRAND INTRODUCTIONMILLER LITE VS BUD LIGHT

MILLER LITE

Frederick Miller came from Germany and went to Milwaukee, on the journey to brew a delicious pilsner in 1850 to then starting Miller

Brewing Co. in 1855. Miller Lite was introduced in 1975, and is known as the first mainstream light beer with 4.2% ABV. They use a 21-

day brewing process, and won two golds in 2010 and 2014 at The Great American Beer Festival for American-Style Lager.

BUD LIGHT

In 1876, Adolphus Busch introduced the pale lager known as Budweiser, and has become one of the best selling beers in the United

States. In 1981, AB Busch introduced Budweiser Light, Budweiser's flagship light beer with less calories and a 4.2% ABV. It is considered

to be a superior light premium lager and is one of the most popular beers in the United States. Overall, it has received plenty of life-long

supporters and critics along the way.

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SOCIAL MENTIONMILLER LITE VS BUD LIGHT

To have a thorough understanding of each brand's presence on social media and how efffective it is, it is very

important to gain a complete understanding of the sentiment that consumers have for each brand. I used Social

Mention, which is a website that analyzes the strength, sentiment, passsion, and reach of user-generated content

around each brand. Strength represents the likelihood that the brand is being mentioned on social media. Using this,

sentiment is the ratio of positive mentions to negative mentions (and also includes neutral). Passion shows the

chance that consumers will continue to talk about the brand on a consistent basis. Lastly, reach measures the overall

influence that the brand may have, showing information about the number of consumers who talk about the brand.

All four of these metrics are based on an average taken over a week from Social Mention.

Strength Sentiment Passion Strength

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SENTIMENT ANALYSISMILLER LITE

64% 3:1

46% 40%

Overall, Miller Lite has very strong and consistent metrics.

Consumers are talking about their product fairly often, but only

somewhat positive. On average, Miller Lite was mentioned about

every 45 seconds, and had a high number of neutral mentions

daily, meaning they weren't necessarily positive or negative. At

one time, they had a strength of 78% which is fairly impressive.

Their passion shows that people are willing to talk positively

about Miller Lite more than just once. When people are willing to

talk about a brand often and positively, this shows that they are

creating long-term loyal customers. The metric variations were

minimal.

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SENTIMENT ANALYSISBUD LIGHT

Bud Light had extremely impressive metrics in all four areas. To me,

their strength and sentiment are their strong suits. The strength

shows that people are talking about Bud Light often, and the

sentiment shows that on average, people are talking very positively

about their brand. At one point their highest sentiment was 9:1 which

was really superb for them. Consumers had really positive things to

say about their brand, and on a regular basis. They also had an

immense reach of 53%, meaning they had a fairly high influence.

Bud Light was mentioned on average every 25 seconds.

74% 6:1

46% 53%

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FACEBOOKMILLER LITE

2,116,391

26,492

#ItsMillerTime

Miller Lite is definitely trying to win the hearts of millenials due to their catchy and popular

memes, and by supporting trends the younger generation is currently following. This includes fun

socks, Christmas sweaters, Bonnaroo music festival, and a variety of sports beyond football. They

appear to have a presence by responding to comments, but it isn't at a fast pace. Miller Lite also

utilizes clear and interesting photos, while also promoting events and ideas. They show creativity

with videos and GIFs that make it interesting and appealing. By sharing ideas and showing quality

content, it is overall beneficial for them to have a Facebook page. 8

FACEBOOKMILLER LITE

9

FACEBOOKBUD LIGHT

7,804,577

63,144

Bud Light showcases their logo as their profile picture which helps consumers with brand awareness, and as an addition they

show the fun aspect of drinking with your friends with their cover photo. Bud Light thrives on the idea of being with your

friends and making new ones, and a lot of their content promotes it with videos and pictures. They encourage a lot of

consumer participation by having them share pictures to enter sweepstakes they host. Bud Light is also very present on

Facebook- they reply to most comments and within a short period of time. They share videos in multiple languages to be

relatable to more buyers. Most pictures and videos bring up friendship as the core value of their marketing which can be

attractive to the younger audience who enjoys being with their friends. They post consistently to keep followers and fans

interested with new content.

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FACEBOOKBUD LIGHT

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TWITTERMILLER LITE

234K

834

4,787

5,157

followers

following

tweets

likes

Miller Lite uses Twitter to their advantage by responding to customers more

frequently than they do with their Facebook page. They continue to be appealing to the

younger generation by using memes and funny posts that they will want to favorite or

retweet. A lot of their tweets involve them responding to the concerns and comments

which is a positive for them. Miller Lite also shares different content than what is on

their Facebook, so if the the same user follows them on multiple platforms, they will

see new posts. They also show humor and wit in their responses to keep it light and

fun between them and the consumers. Miller Lite also shows their concerns when a

customer is disappointed, by reaching out to them and trying to make it right with

them. 12

TWITTERMILLER LITE

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TWITTERBUD LIGHT

165K

149

25.1K

526

followers

following

tweets

likes

This might be Bud Light's weakest platform in comparison to Miller Light with less

followers and five times as many tweets. However, a majority of their tweets are in

response to customers but it does clog up their content shared. It seems that they use it

more to respond to people versus sharing content which can be positive and negative.

Customers love to be heard and responded to, but very little original content is seen

otherwise. A lot of millenials follow on Twitter to get updates and see pictures, GIFs,

and interesting tweets. While it is nice that they respond to customers, they should

create an incentive and interesting content to get more followers, and ultimately reach

more people. If Bud Light shares more original material, more fans might feel inclinded

to give them a follow. 14

TWITTERBUD LIGHT

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INSTAGRAMMILLER LITE

71.2K

159

followers

posts

0following

Miller Lite has a verified account with over 71,000 followers

mostly sharing pictures of the product from different viewpoints and aspects. A high majority

of the pictures focus directly on the beer, using clever and witty captions instead of promoting

events or trends like their Facebook page. They do share content from users by giving them

credit for the photo, which does encourage consumer involvement. Miller Lite seemingly

shares less creative content on Instagram which could be a mistake due to millenials high use

of Instagram verus Facebook. Millenials are looking for new ideas and trends, which Miller

Lite should try to accomodate for. Miller Lite also doesn't advetise "It's Miller Time" as much

on this platform besides using the hashtag, which they should definitely utilize because it is a

rememberable phrase.

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INSTAGRAMMILLER LITE

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INSTAGRAMBUD LIGHT

164K

300

followers

posts

11following

Bud Light uses Instagram well to their advantage by using creative content that

is similar to the other platforms but also unique to Instagram. They do a lot of

promoting of events such as sports like the superbowl by using the gold can

sweepstakes, Bud Light's content is full of interesting and creative posts by

modeling different cans, showcasing celebrities, and advertising with ads they

also run on tv. A lot of creativity is shown in their "festival cans" posts when

they were advertising festivals and concerts taking place around the U.S. They

also continue sharing their value of friendship to this platform by sharing

picture of groups of people together and using the line "a Bud Light among

friends is a story waiting to be told". Overall they use great content that is fun

and trendy. 18

INSTAGRAMBUD LIGHT

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YOUTUBEMILLER LITE

7,862subscribers

24,916,711views

Miller Lite uses their YouTube channel to share

creative vidos along with ads that are also seen on

tv. The product is certainly at the center of the

videos and the channel which is a good marketing

strategy. They also use the chance to promote the

benefits and positives of the product to make it

more appealing to consumers. The homepage is

well organized with playlists since they post

regularly. A majority of Miller Lite's videos are

short clips, but they grab the attention of the person

watching and creates interest in the product.

Overall, they use it well to their benefit but they

could create some curiosity to watch more videos. 20

YOUTUBEMILLER LITE

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YOUTUBEBUD LIGHT

33,783,933views

110,107subscribers

Bud Light certainly out-does Miller Lite in number of

YouTube subscribers- they have over ten times Miller

Lite. Bud Light continues to promote "Between Friends"

and the value of friendship through each platform

which makes it feel related but still unique. Their mini

series of "Between Friends" is clever and entertaining

to watch, with high number of views on most of their

videos. Their clips range from about 15 seconds to just

over a minute, but still captures the attention of

whoever is watching.Bud Light also appeals to different

target markets but showing vidoes in Spanish, about

friendship and family which is heartwarming to the

consumer. The mini-series causes people to watch

more than one video, creating higher views and more

subscribers.

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YOUTUBEBUD LIGHT

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WINNERBEER BATTLE

Bud Light is the winner of the Battle of Beer!

Bud Light is the official winner in Battle of Beer, a marketing analysis of social media. They

were clear winners with Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, even though they lagged behind Miller Lite on

Twitter. Even though they didn't do a perfect job, they are clearly well aware of their target audience and how to

have them engage on social media. Bud Light had a superior marketing strategy with having their core value be

around friendships, using "Between Friends" on all platforms, creating harmony. They make sure to reach out to

their consumers and address their concerns to make them feel as though they have a voice. Bud Light also

creates extremely unique and fun content that is visually and emotionally appealing to multiple target markets

which is tough to do. In doing this, they have a large amount of followers, likes, and subscribers across the social

media platforms they utilize. Miller Lite does not place the consumer at the center as they should, and this could

cause customers to lack in engagement and interest. Even though this was just breaking into the surface of what

these brands do, it is clear that Bud Light creates conversation and engagement for their consumers, while

making lasting relationships on the road to success. 24