2025 Winner
BronzeBest in Consumer Engagement
Labatt (Budweiser)
"Budweiser Excuses"
Starcom / Anomaly
"Budweiser Excuses"
Starcom / Anomaly
Men suck at getting together, but they’re great at making excuses.
According to Budweiser’s second annual friendship study, they learned that 75% of Canadian men report hanging out less with their friends, and almost half admit to making up excuses to bail on plans.
As the beer that’s all about bringing buds together, the agency set out to change that — all with the goal of deepening Budweiser’s brand meaning and connection to the hockey viewing occasion. As for how they’d do it, that unlock came through one final data point: 1-in-4 men would think about bailing on plans less if their friends publicly called them out.
The End of Excuses: On one of the biggest nights for Canadian hockey, Budweiser let fans use its ads to publicly roast friends who bail on hockey.
Partnering with the NHL and Rogers Media, they gave Canadian hockey fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The chance to publicly call out their bud's excuses, and use Budweiser’s massive national hockey buy to encourage their friend to “Make Time For Hockey, Not Excuses.” After all, that’s what buds do.
The agency took it all live on one of hockey’s biggest regular-season nights: Saturday, March 29. A day when all 7 Canadian NHL teams were set to hit the ice in their bid for playoff positions. To pull it all off, their plan rolled out in two phases.
Phase one was to rally the buds. The first, 48 hours out from the big night, the brand invited guys to seize the opportunity to call out their bailing buds. Assets went live across Budweiser social and CRM, and Rogers / NHL digital, social, and app properties. The response was massive: with over 10,000 excuses rolling in to a custom Budweiser landing page that collected key details like: “go to excuse”, social handle, location, and favourite team.
Phase two was to blast the bailers. On March 29th, they gave the bailers heck! Over the night, 26 15-second brand spots, four in-studio moments with Ron MacLean, nine in-game lower thirds, and six DED boards made sure there was no excuse to miss the brand’s campaign. What's more, the agency tactically increased the brand’s presence in Canadian NHL cities where the games were being played, dominating on-screen and off. LED trucks surrounded the arenas, while city-wide Digital OOH and Print helped to call out Bud's excuses — even localizing the ones they could, based on the submission information.
Budweiser’s ‘End of Excuses’ was the first-ever hockey campaign that handed over a brand’s massive national media buy to the fans, all in near-real time!
An almost impossible feat that required next-level partnership from the NHL, Rogers Media, Labatt, Anomaly, and Starcom — including a day-of war room, live legal approvals, and real-time trafficking across non-broadcast placements, like OOH and social.
The campaign was an extreme success for Budweiser and its friends everywhere. In only 48 hours, they collected 10,000 real excuses from men across Canada. They blasted 64 excuse-making buddies with national media, netted 51.5 million impressions, and 7.7M earned impressions and achieved Budweiser’s highest brand power (7.5), meaning (134), and salience (146.1) since 2019.
According to Budweiser’s second annual friendship study, they learned that 75% of Canadian men report hanging out less with their friends, and almost half admit to making up excuses to bail on plans.
As the beer that’s all about bringing buds together, the agency set out to change that — all with the goal of deepening Budweiser’s brand meaning and connection to the hockey viewing occasion. As for how they’d do it, that unlock came through one final data point: 1-in-4 men would think about bailing on plans less if their friends publicly called them out.
The End of Excuses: On one of the biggest nights for Canadian hockey, Budweiser let fans use its ads to publicly roast friends who bail on hockey.
Partnering with the NHL and Rogers Media, they gave Canadian hockey fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The chance to publicly call out their bud's excuses, and use Budweiser’s massive national hockey buy to encourage their friend to “Make Time For Hockey, Not Excuses.” After all, that’s what buds do.
The agency took it all live on one of hockey’s biggest regular-season nights: Saturday, March 29. A day when all 7 Canadian NHL teams were set to hit the ice in their bid for playoff positions. To pull it all off, their plan rolled out in two phases.
Phase one was to rally the buds. The first, 48 hours out from the big night, the brand invited guys to seize the opportunity to call out their bailing buds. Assets went live across Budweiser social and CRM, and Rogers / NHL digital, social, and app properties. The response was massive: with over 10,000 excuses rolling in to a custom Budweiser landing page that collected key details like: “go to excuse”, social handle, location, and favourite team.
Phase two was to blast the bailers. On March 29th, they gave the bailers heck! Over the night, 26 15-second brand spots, four in-studio moments with Ron MacLean, nine in-game lower thirds, and six DED boards made sure there was no excuse to miss the brand’s campaign. What's more, the agency tactically increased the brand’s presence in Canadian NHL cities where the games were being played, dominating on-screen and off. LED trucks surrounded the arenas, while city-wide Digital OOH and Print helped to call out Bud's excuses — even localizing the ones they could, based on the submission information.
Budweiser’s ‘End of Excuses’ was the first-ever hockey campaign that handed over a brand’s massive national media buy to the fans, all in near-real time!
An almost impossible feat that required next-level partnership from the NHL, Rogers Media, Labatt, Anomaly, and Starcom — including a day-of war room, live legal approvals, and real-time trafficking across non-broadcast placements, like OOH and social.
The campaign was an extreme success for Budweiser and its friends everywhere. In only 48 hours, they collected 10,000 real excuses from men across Canada. They blasted 64 excuse-making buddies with national media, netted 51.5 million impressions, and 7.7M earned impressions and achieved Budweiser’s highest brand power (7.5), meaning (134), and salience (146.1) since 2019.
Credits
LABATT BREWERIES OF CANADAHead of Mainstream Brands – Bud Light, Budweiser, Busch: Patrick Heembrock
Marketing Manager: Jake Brunt
ANOMALY
Executive Creative Director / Partner: Dave Douglass
Creative Director: Vinay Parmar
Jr. Art Director: Chris Stapleton
Jr. Writer: Liam Haggarty
Art Director: Ben Nusca
CEO: Candace Borland
Managing Director: Matt Holton
Business Director: Joachim Holmgren
Account Executive: Shelby Perlinger
Account Director: Dominic Neukom
Head of Strategy: Mahmoud El Kattan
Head of Comms Strategy - Kira Montgomery
Head of Production: Marie-Pierre Toure
Agency Producer: Jacklyn Bonsignore
Agency Producer: Adam Reid
OOH Producer: Pierre Briones
Group Director, Social Strategy & Creative: Matt Stasoff
Production Company: Unreasonable Studios
Executive Producer: Annya Williams
Production Company Producer: Maddy O’Shaughnessy
Director of Music & Voice Over: David Henriques
Sound Engineer: David Henriques
Animation Company: Unreasonable Studios
Animator: Wyatt Kuc
STARCOM
Manager, Media Planning: Tamara Sanchez-Vegas
Planner, Media Planning: John Rizk
Assistant, Media Planning: Maude Peterson
Group Account Director, Media Planning: Chris Pallotta
Senior Vice President, Planning: Claus Burmeister
Associate Director, Strategy: Masha Zarakhani
Senior Vice President, Strategy: Jared Aldridge
Vice President, Investment: Mark Evans
Manager, Investment: Marta Zwierzynska
Vice President, Director Video Distribution: Catarina Padilha
Group Account Director, Social: Bethany Castle
Director, Social: Gary Gamarra
Manager, Social: Julz Hernandez
Senior Social Specialist: Jessica Dy Mo
Senior Buyer, Investment: Gen Delarosa
VERITAS
Vice President: Rachael Collier
PR Director: Rebecca Mejia