Corona Extra

1. Identify and develop a platform based upon a true human insight.

2. Understand the relevance of that insight to each generation, and evolve the platform accordingly.

If the same human insight works, you can bring it to life for new modern audiences – while maintaining relevance to the core user base. And that’s what we did for Corona Extra.

That’s how Corona became a purpose-driven, lifestyle brand.

The strategic platform behind the work: Corona is the Spirit of the Getaway. A vacation in a 12-ounce bottle. It all began with iconic moments of respite. And that meant the beach.
 
The sun, the sand, the surf. Getting away from it all. That’s what our target – equally male and female by the way – was seeking. To step outside of their everyday personas, their everyday lives. And Corona delivered it in spades.

We created enduring relationships that resulted in explosive growth and award-winning work.
 
We grew Corona from an anemic 8MM cases a year to over 100MM.
We roared our way to the #1 import, while being outspent 10:1 by our closest competitor.

But as our next generation of drinkers came into the franchise, data revealed a new dynamic: the brand’s beach imagery was so ingrained for this group (they’d been seeing it for years) that they took our beach image LITERALLY.

They viewed Corona as the brand for warm weather, outside, beaches, vacations, pool parties. But not for everyday use.

Our research told us that “Spirit of the Getaway” was still very meaningful.
But where that getaway happens – that was ripe for expansion. If Corona is a vacation in a 12-ounce bottle, it really stands for a way to find your beach state of mind – no matter where you are, whom you’re with, and what time of day or night it is.
Thus was born the “Find Your Beach” campaign. We refreshed and reasserted our position as the beer you chose when you wanted to step out of the rat race – before stepping back in.

And in doing so, your “beach” can be anywhere you want it to be. We changed behavior and sales climbed even higher – while the category faltered. Because we stayed relevant to our core base while bringing in new users.

That was Corona’s purpose – to take you to your Beach State of Mind.

We tapped into pop culture with the Corona Hotline – manned by Tony Romo. The Hotline wove Corona into “non-Corona season” NFL gamedays in a fan-interactive way. Huge levels of engagement – and consumption – have resulted!

We pushed the envelope. As a strategic partner, that’s what we get paid to do. We successfully introduced the Corona Can (not only that, but we designed it as well) without eating the bottle business’ lunch (can volume was 90% incremental, in case you’re wondering).

We develop super-cool events to address local challenges, like the award-winning Luna Corona. These events didn’t just associate with pop culture, they created it where we grew on-premise sales 5% in New York City (tough crowd, right?) by lining up a lime-shaped moon with a bottle of Corona on a Chelsea billboard. It won an Effie, a Lion, and a ton of statues, too. You’ve got to take a look – it’s probably the first time a bunch of creatives have worked with an MIT astrophysicist (well, at least that we know of). These events lived on and on in the form of shared social posts as well as global news coverage.
We also develop portfolio architecture.

We worked closely with brand management to develop a strategic portfolio architecture giving line extensions the necessary distinction they needed with the right linkage to the master brand.

We utilize a broad range of “tradigital” tactics to tell – and give greater meaning – to our Corona story. These include an innovative contextually-based YouTube video search platform, contentual outdoor placements, and a massively successful UGC social sharing program.

Results: 

Sales +7%

Only beer brand growing while the rest of the category declines

#1 Import