March Madness is in full swing, and many corporations are using this craze to create some new fun themed gimmicks to pad their sales. It’s no secret that a huge percentage of the public spends more time watching the NCAA Basketball Tournament in March into April than any one person or group of people should in the span of a month.
Sports fans can get a little emotional about watching their teams competing in the tournament, and understandably so. Players and fans of teams alike go into a game believing they can win the tournament and often end up going home before that dream comes to fruition. Every year teams go home empty handed and dreams of winning the tournament are shattered for 63 or 67 teams depending on how you look at it.
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Last year Molson Coors Co. (TAP.A) brand Coors Light thought up a clever way to create more of a buzz around the brand and the hype of the NCAA tournament, just in time for April Fool's Day to boot. The well-known beer company took to social media announcing its new beer-flavored lollipops. This candy was non-alcoholic, but had the beer flavor its customers have grown to love.
Coors Light
Coors Joke Turns into Product IRL
Coors Light pulled out all the stops again this year with its latest gimmick alongside the NCAA basketball tournament and with April Fool’s Day coming. The beer company is bringing back its joke product to life, the beer flavored popsicle - the Coors-icle, according to Food Dive.Coors-icle is coming to more than 800 bars nationwide and briefly available for purchase online until March 24. Bars will have them available throughout the tournament, but they will only have a limited supply. The Coors-icle pops will come in a six -pack and are also non-alcoholic much like the beer flavored lollipops from last year's April Fool's Day gimmick.
Molson Coors’ CEO Gavin Hattersley said that both Miller Light and Coors Light are doing well above what they had in revenue compared to 2019, and that both are “healthier than they’ve been in years.” Perhaps it’s the healthy company revenue that allowed it to go ahead and bring the gimmick into real life bars and available for sale, otherwise that’s a lot of work and investment for a product to only have a life cycle of a couple weeks. Hopefully, the hype is matched with a flavorful product.
Coors isn’t really expecting great sales from the Coors-icle six packs, but rather using the gimmick to get the beer name in the forefront of consumers’ minds so when asked what’d they would like to drink, the first thing that comes to mind is Coors. Bars across the country are full-on into the tournament and having a cool way for their customers to find a new and fun way to 'chill' is helpful and can add a bit of levity to a hard loss. Instead of handing a heart-broken fan a beer, they can hand them a Coor-icle. Maybe the joke will help them through a tough moment.
Bring on the Chill
Coors Light focuses on the cool refreshing taste when adapting its marketing for consumers, and the NCAA tournament is no different. Coors Light brewer wants fans to cool off and otherwise stay chill during the tournaments heated competitive moments.
“Every point, slam dunk, assist and block puts you on the edge of your seat, but a taste of a Coors Light Coors-icle will bring you back to a moment of chill,” said Marcelo Pascoa, Coors family of brands vice president of marketing, in a statement. “We’re making sure that fans watching the games at home or at bars nationwide can cool down with a Coors-icle.”
While the Coors-icle is a non-alcoholic product, it's for adult consumers. The taste of the Coors-icle is the popular beer flavor. This joke product is not meant for under-agers or an attempt to gain new audiences of younger ages, the company says. It is just meant to be a fun playful limited-time product for adults to enjoy and take the ‘chilling’ to the next level while watching some intense basketball games.
