New Coors Light promotion will send drinkers to their videochat backgrounds

Coors Light is playing off America’s videochat fatigue with a new promotion that will send five winners to the travel destinations they’ve been using as their video backgrounds and dreaming about being transported to for months. 

During MTV’s Video Music Awards on Sunday, the brand will debut a new 60-second spot encouraging fans to refresh their spirits by not just looking at beautiful outdoor spaces on their own or their colleagues’ video-chat backgrounds, but by fleeing their home offices to experience the outdoor spaces they see every day on a screen.

The promotion, the latest iteration of Coors Light’s “Made to Chill” campaign, is another effort by the brand to tap into the cultural Zeitgeist, in which many pandemic-weary Americans have gone months marooned in their homes, away from friends, family and their workplaces, not to mention vacation destinations.

The aim is to not only send five grand-prize winners to a vacation destination of their choice, but also inspire others to change their relationship with their video-chat backgrounds and give them hope that one day they’ll be able to actually visit those places again.

“We know we might not be able to go to all of the fabulous places in our backgrounds right now, which can be stressful and depressing,” says Marcelo Pascoa, vice president of the Coors family of brands. “But Coors Light is reminding people to have hope — to remember this is temporary.

“If people know there’s a chance that one day they can visit those places that inspire them again, it can change their perspective so that looking at those backgrounds can start to create a different feeling,” he says. “We’re saying you can dream about going there and make plans to go there again, because sooner or later you will.”

The new musical-inspired spot, Pascoa’s first since joining Molson Coors over the summer, also runs in 30-second and 15-second versions. It's directed by Noam Murro; production was handled by Biscuit Filmworks.

It depicts a man emerging from his city apartment to barren streets with trash piled up next to overfilled cans. An unseen orchestra begins to play, and, cold can of Coors Light in hand, he bursts into the opening bars of Rodgers’ and Hammerstein’s “Oh What a Beautiful Morning."

Donning an untucked shirt and tie paired with athletic pants, he twirls around a light pole and dances his way through the suburbs, where he finds a raccoon scavenging trash from an overturned bin, and eventually into an idyllic grass-and flower-covered foothill framed the Rocky Mountains, where he cracks his beer surrounded by dancing deer. Finally, the spot abruptly cuts back to him, in his darkened apartment, staring at a soulless video call with his colleagues, one of whom is superimposed over the background in his daydream.

The spot ends with the message: “Win a trip to the videochat background you’ve been staring at for months. Enter at CoorsLight.com.”

 The spot is the continuation of the brand’s “Made to Chill” platform, which has resonated with drinkers with simple, targeted messaging that encourages drinkers to find a moment to unplug and refresh their spirits amid the cross forces of monotony and pressure in their everyday lives, Pascoa says.

Since the platform launched last year, sales figures tell the story. Case volume is up 7.1% year-to-date, and dollar sales are up 7.8% year-to-date in the off-premise, helping the brand pick up 0.6 points of share in the premium lights segment, according to Nielsen all-outlet and convenience data through Aug. 15. Coors Light this year has corralled its highest share of the premium lights segment in its history, data show.

Its new work also comes as Coors Light’s new packaging has made its way into retail, with a design that conveys a sleeker and cleaner look designed to connect with younger legal-age drinkers.

“We have pivoted the brand in a direction that’s relatable and appealing to young people,” Pascoa says. “It feels more contemporary and relevant. It’s both timely and timeless. Refreshing your spirit is a basic human necessity that’s relevant today, 100 years ago or 100 years from now.”

To participate in the promotion, consumers can visit www.coorslight.com/outside and upload a screenshot of themselves in their ideal video chat background. The website also contains the contest’s complete rules. Coors Light will randomly select five winners to plan a trip to the designation they submit. The prize package is valid through June 2022, so winners can plan their trips when feasible, and when they feel comfortable.