Old Milwaukee was a tired and ugly old beer brand marketed in Canada by Sleeman’s.
‘Value’ beer is typically associated with crappy taste. Men may drink it at home, but because of the association with ‘cheap swill’ they don’t want to be seen drinking it in public, or offering it to their friends. To that end, we helped change the liquid, the packaging, and the advertising. We were also the first to launch ‘buck a beer’, an additional tall boy in every case of 24, and the 24 pack, easy to carry suitcase. With that the campaign, ‘Good beer. Strangely inexpensive’ was born.
In the first six months, sales went through the roof, so much so, that Sleeman’s management got nervous because, due to demand, lower margin Old Milwaukee was taking up half of the national brewers overall brewing capacity, pushing out their higher margin products. The campaign was shelved, much to the glee of Labatt and Molson, who then launched, or purchased their own value brands, such as Lakeport.
