10.20.05


Miller Beer And Viral Marketing

By John Stith

Miller Beer launched a new game from their website promoting their Miller Lite label. The game site has been up since Monday and has had a fair amount of success. This works in conjunction with their new "Beer Runner" ad campaign.

According to Miller, the site had 165,000 unique visitors playing more than 360,000 games in the first four days. The game can be accessed through Yahoo Games, MSN Games, CBSSportsLine.com or Miller's own site.

"We created the 'Beer Runner' campaign to underscore the notion that Miller offers 'more' -- more color, more character, more taste. Just as sports fans demand more of their sports, we believe they should demand more from a light beer," said Tom Bick, senior marketing manager for Miller Lite.

"To deliver this message to legal-drinking-age consumers, it's increasingly critical that we extend our efforts even further to areas such as digital marketing. By offering more fun online content such as the 'Beer Run,' we can engage beer drinkers and impact their brand preference."

The game itself is pretty simple. It's half time in the football game and during that time you have to dodge dogs, bicycles and other obstacles in your trek to get more beer. You do need a recent version of Shockwave to play. The game is amusing and could easily waist some time at the workplace. It's also a great example of an integrated ad campaign that hits multiple formats at the same time. So now, when you see the TV commercial, you can run to the computer and begin the chase.