Pew Research Center reported that in 2021 Americas consumed 26.5 gallons of beer per person. I certainly did my part to help that stat. I love beer. In fact, most of the team at View Newspaper Group does too — that’s why we’ve hosted a craft beer festival for more than a decade. (By the way, this year’s Bottles, Brews & News craft beer fest is set for Saturday, Sept. 20 in downtown Fenton, Mich. More details to come!)

And while I love craft beer, especially when consumed at a festival like ours or a locally-owned brewery, I am pretty loyal to one particular brand of “lite” beer. Miller Lite has been my go-to drink for more than 20 years. About a month ago, however, my youngest sister stopped by with a six-pack of a different light beer — Coors Light. I hadn’t had one since my last visit to Colorado. It was cold, light and refreshing. I liked it!
With Coors Light on the brain I saw something a few days later that caught my attention. Last year Coors Light and creative agency Rethink were honored with advertising awards for their “Lights Out” campaign. The campaign was the result of an event at 2023 baseball game. According to The Drum, a publisher for marketing and media industries, “a foul ball from baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani — who then played for the Los Angeles Angels — knocked out an LED module in the (Coors Light) ad at Citi Field. The result was an image of a signature silver Coors Light can — with a black box hovering above the brand logo … Within 48 hours, Rethink had designed and launched a special-edition Coors Light can, featuring a black square where the pixels had gone out in the Citi Field ad … The limited-edition cans sold out online in less than 24 hours.”
The “Lights Out” can was featured in print and digital ads and consumers who couldn’t get their hands on an official can began drawing black squares on their cans of Coors at home.
There are so many unique aspects to this campaign and a lot of things had to line up to make this campaign the success that it was, but at its core it was the result of acting fast on a good idea. This is a concept our team talks about often.
While some campaigns require market and branding research, including surveys and focus groups, others can and should be done quickly to capture the momentum of an event or an idea before it sputters out or becomes passé. Keeping that in mind, here are some tips to help you act fast and score a big win for your brand.
Go then grow: This advice comes from Rethink’s global chief creative officer Aaron Starkman who said his team follows the “go then grow” approach: Put the idea out there in a medium of your choice and if it goes well, expand on it. Not only does this allow for fast action, it allows you to be mindful of your budget.
Keep it simple: If a small black box on a beer can can cause a craze, then your next simple idea can too. Sometimes less is more. For the “Lights Out” campaign the simplicity was vital. From The Drum, “The simplicity of the idea made it easy for Molson Coors to greenlight further executions without extensive research or drawn-out decision-making.” CEOs, creatives, even lawyers love simple and so do consumers. Don’t make people inside or outside of the organization work too hard to create, approve, understand and enjoy the idea.
Work with deadline driven experts: No one understands or is more driven by deadlines than the team at View Newspaper Group. With 22 locally-owned, community newspapers connecting 14 counties throughout Michigan, collectively our team has a deadline nearly every hour of every day. Whether we develop the idea with our client or a client comes to us with an idea, our team can bring the idea to life and to market on the printed page within 24 hours.
Have fun: Part of the success of the “Lights Out” campaign certainly had to do with the product. Beer is fun! In The Drum piece Starkman said, “Beer is supposed to be fun. At the end of the day, baseball fans saw a beer brand making light of a negative moment and having a sense of humor about it.”
We can’t all sell beer, but we can all have fun with what we do sell. Start with the fun and build from there.
How did you score a big win by acting fast? I’d love to hear about it. Email me ecaswell@mihomepaper.com.
Emily Caswell is the Brand Manager for VIEW Group, the branding division of View Newspaper Group.