http://adage.com/article?article_id=122900
Ads for skyrocketing Blue Moon
Blue Moon, the Coors-owned craft beer with the explosive, ad-free growth, has quietly started advertising.

The Belgian-style wheat beer last year began placing print ads in local newsweeklies and national magazines such as Food & Wine and Men's Fitness, as well as billboards in key markets. The ads, from Integer show the brand's signature tall glassware and orange garnish, with the tagline "Artfully Crafted."

Blue Moon's sales were up 51% in 2007.


A Coors spokeswoman said the campaign was intended to emphasize the orange garnish, and would likely be focused on new markets going forward. No TV or radio ads are planned. One person familiar with the matter estimated the media spending at a mid-six-digit level.

Coors has been reluctant to support the brand with media because it didn't want to advertise its corporate-backing to the brew snobs who are a key craft-beer constituency, and it didn't want to interfere with the sense of consumer discovery that's fueled the brand's growth.

But that strategy has apparently worked too well. The brand grew 91% during 2006, according to Beer Marketer's Insights, and supermarket sales were up another 51% through early November 2007, according to Information Resources Inc.

All that growth -- which is likely to put the brand in the 700,000-barrels shipped neighborhood, the same ballpark as craft beer's giants Sam Adams Boston Lager and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale -- likely can't be sustained without at least some media support.

Coming from marketing/advertising background, I think it's a good strategy. They've let the word-of-mouth groundswell go long enough. Eventually you have to advertise. If it's getting as big as Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or Sam Adams Lager, you're getting to the point where there's not as much excitement about discovery anymore. It's a new goal they have to have now, and it involves image. I think this will definitely help them.

yeah, I was just reading advertising age and noticed the article, very good marketing strategy. Coors is doing some very interesting things and they are worth keeping an eye on. They seem to be taking a dif approach to the craft market than a-b.