Budweiser Clydesdale Advertising Campaign Paper

Budweiser, the twenty-fifth most valuable brand globally with a value of $22.3 billion (Forbes, 2015) is known internationally for their unique marketing strategies and campaigns. Although InBev, a global conglomerate purchased the company in 2008 for a value of $52 billion. The owners have promoted Budweiser onto more¬¬ international markets, without diminishing the importance of Budweiser’s Clydesdale advertising campaign. In recent years, Budweiser has changed their advertising approach by including emotional themes and a more family oriented approach to their advertising campaign. This differs from a number of alcohol advertisements, which use physical attractiveness in people and positive attributes to advertise their product (Atkin and

This emphasis on emotional themes allowed them to appeal to a broader audience and increase their brand recognition. To understand this shift in alcohol advertising content I will be analyzing three major approaches, which include emotion, nostalgia and lifestyle branding.

Advertisers have used various tactics to grab the attention of the audience to promote a product. One of the most frequently used tactics of marketing is the use of animals in advertisements. McCutchen (2005) suggests this tactic is common because consumers are naturally attracted to animals. Upshaw (1995) reported that consumers develop affection and emotional ties to brands that include animals in their advertisements. Chaudhuri and Holbrook (2001) suggested that these affective attachments promote greater brand commitments, and increased consumer loyalty. Edward Wilson (1984) proposed the biophilia hypothesis. The theory suggests that humans are genetically likely to attend to, be attracted by, and be drawn to other living beings such as animals. Marketers use animals that evoke loyalty, friendliness, and human-pet attachment.