Miller Beer, NFL Team Up to Localize Sites
I’m a little late on this, as we approach the football playoffs, but Miller Beer has been targeting local consumers this season by providing local team content and commentary on MillerLite.com, while linking to the teams’ Web sites. The Miller efforts is part of a broader tie-in with the NFL, wrapped around its Very Important Beer Drinker (V.I.B.) campaign.
In New York, for instance, Miller provides a broad listing of “Jet Friendly” bars and notes which ones have drink specials and appearances by the Miller Lite girls. In Philadelphia, Miller features “Happy Hour,” a listing of Philly bars that have game specials on Sundays, such as $2 pints of Miller Lite or Fosters.
The Philly site also features links to the Philadelphia Eagles official Web site and the pregame show on WYSP, as well as a “hope meter” for the Eagles. Ratings on the meter cleverly play on the team’s name and range from “the team’s a rotten egg” to “they’re soaring to the top” (the hope meter is currently closer to “rotten egg”). The site also features Yahoo! Sports links for mobile phone or the Web and extends beyond football with “Taste Rock Live” an event guide for Philly music institutions, including the Electric Factory, the Tower Theater and TLA.
There is a lot of potential here for Miller to promote local bars & restaurants, as well as its own brand. And it’s already done some interesting things with this. The challenge it would seem is to market this, and gain traction within the limited window of the 5 month football season; once a significant user base is built, it goes away for 7 months.