BLGW + SNL = 4EVA?

This past Saturday I was watching Saturday Night Live and the first thing that caught my eye was that The Rock (aka Dwayne Johnson) was doing the opening skit instead of Gerard Butler, who was supposed to be hosting. That usually doesn't happen, it's either the host does it or just the SNL cast. But, I guess the issues they wanted to address fit the skit. Anyways, they did "'The Rock' Obama" sketch:



First off, I think Fred Armisen does a great Barack Obama impersonation. He has most of Obama's mannerisms down and his speech characteristics are pretty much on. The Rock on the other hand, is more like Tarzan than The Hulk. But I digress.

The thing I was planning on talking about is how, when it went to the first commercial break, a big graphic came up on screen and the announcer said that Bud Light Golden Wheat was proud to give up some of it's ad time to bring you some special behind the scenes SNL moments.

Anheuser-Busch is extending it's brand line with a new kind of beer. Check out the press release HERE if you want the details on the product. It's basically Bud Light's answer to Alexander Keith's Premium White and Rickard's Original White Ale.

This is the first time in SNL's history that a single advertiser has bought out all the national ad time on the show. With this, Bud Light Golden Wheat (BLGW) had a segment called "Backstage with BLGW". It showed some clips from past SNL dress rehearsals and bloopers as well. They also sponsored a sweepstakes to fly you and a guest down to watch SNL live and on top of that, during the ad breaks, they aired highlights of SNL 'viewing parties' held in a couple big cities across the states sponsored by BLGW. This was a huge move on A-B to promote the new line in their brand. If you look back to last year and their successful launches of Bud Light Lime and Bud Light Chelada, they're probably hoping for the same thing.

I think they were smart to choose SNL instead of some prime time spot. SNL's audience is the exact demographic they're trying to reach; the audience being the legal younger aged men and woman, staying in drinking a couple beers with friends because it's way cheaper than going out. Also, it makes it seem like they want to connect with the content of the show and not just sell you the product. In reality, when they said, "We're giving up some of our air time to present you with...", they really did give up some of the ad time, you just don't know that they have all of it. Also, during the 'given up ad time' they had their logo plastered at the beginning, during, and at the end of the SNL moments. Even though a commercial wasn't playing, their presence was still there.

The viewing parties seemed kind of redundant but they were shown to show viewers regular people getting together to watch SNL, drinking the new product and having fun. BLGW also had regular ads aired alongside with this 18 second epic which they aired about a million times:



Though I didn't think the ads were that persuasive or great, nor did I really wanna thank BLGW for sharing those SNL moments with me, by the end of the show, I knew what the product was and I had the image of it being poured into a glass seared into my mind.

I'm sure there has been other examples of marketers buying out ad time from TV programs but this is the first clear example I've seen of it. If you know of any other companies that have done this or you think it's a dumb concept and it doesn't work, let me know, I'd like to hear what you have to say!