Marketer Has Hand in Improving Sales of Bud Light

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Los Angeles marketing consultant Matti Leshem has used the children’s hand game of rock-paper-scissors to create a sports league. Why? To sell more beer, of course.

Leshem, chief executive of L.A.-based consultancy Protagonist, is trying to boost Bud Light beer with the creation of the International Rock-Paper-Scissors Federation, a league he started three years ago. Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. is the sponsor and pays the bills.

The season begins each spring in tens of thousands of bars. Local contests are held until the field is winnowed down to 311 regional champions. Bud Light then flies these “athletes” to Las Vegas, where they compete for the national title and a $50,000 prize. The playoff aired last week on Fox Sports Net.

But lest you think this is a mere national “sport,” Leshem is fresh from an international rock-paper-scissors event held during the Beijing Olympics. Competitors from four countries flew to China for a worldwide championship.

“It’s a good example of a complete branding campaign because it works on a local, national and now international level,” Leshem said.

Mark Cleland of Dublin, Ireland, the gold medalist, seemed to take it just as seriously.

“Facing off against the finest rock-paper-scissors players in the world was an intense challenge that pushed my skills to the limit,” he told the Irish Times. “I tried to look for patterns in my opponents’ throws and, in the end, they played right into my hands.”

Leshem’s company also produces corporate events, Web sites, publicity stunts anything except the standard 30-second TV commercial, which he sees as becoming obsolete as a sales tool.

To promote another client, Pepsi, he is making the largest Ferris wheel in North America look like the soft drink’s logo. The 286-foot-tall attraction is under construction as part of Xanadu, a $2 billion theme park and shopping center in East Rutherford, N.J.

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