Newcastle goes ambush marketing (again)

Pretty Aubrey Plaza is a princess of deadpan comedy, and she is a perfect spokeswoman for a sly, wry Newcastle ad campaign.  I wasn't sure that "Band of Brands" was a serious idea, but apparently it is:

Newcastle is introducing a cheeky, irreverent campaign on Monday, in which it will try to recruit 20 to 30 brands to help it break into the Super Bowl advertising melee. In exchange for a cash contribution, the other brands’ logos and messages will be incorporated into a spot crafted with Newcastle by the advertising agency Droga5 that will air online and in some local NBC television markets during the game’s broadcast. (Rival beer advertisers are not invited to join.)

“We don’t have the money to advertise the normal way, so we found a clever way around it,” said Charles van Es, head of marketing for Heineken USA’s portfolio of brands, which includes Newcastle. “With the whole world going to crowdsourcing these days, we figured we could crowdsource an ad.”

Reference: Newcastle Brown Ale Calls for Other Brands to Join a Sly Super Bowl Ad Campaign.

One marketer once said, If you have more budget than brain, you advertise.  But if you have more brain than budget, you go social media.  Kudos to van Es and staff for their ingenuity.