Bud Light Seltzer Bubbles to Top of Beer Industry Ad Spend

Bud Light is clearly putting a lot of stock into its new hard seltzer product, Bud Light Seltzer. Ads began appearing for the new brand on Jan. 4, 2020 and so far, $24.2 million has been spent against 617,279,404 impressions according to iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company.

Of that total, $23 million came from NFL Playoffs broadcasts -- including $13.2 million during this past weekend’s conference championship games (which was the fifth highest brand spend during the Jan. 19 games). For the entire playoffs, Bud Light Seltzer is 10th in terms of estimated TV spend.

Though Bud Light is entering the hard seltzer space later than some more established players, it’s attempting to make up for the time with a big spend against major events like the NFL Playoffs. From Jan. 1-19, Bud Light Seltzer is making up nearly 37% of the entire beer industry TV spend -- almost double the closest competitor (Michelob). Historically, Bud Light’s ad spend has been high, and dedicated to its core brand, Bud Light. Last year, Bud Light was far and away the biggest spender in the beer industry, at $201.4 million. This year, they’ve spent a little over $11,000 on the same core brand.

Dating all the way back to Jan. 2019, Bud Light Seltzer’s already out-spent all other seltzer advertisers on TV (a trend that appears poised to grow through the Super Bowl and upcoming March Madness).

Bud Light Seltzer is already among the beer industry ads with the highest attention scores, too. One spot, “Teaser,” earned a 99.1 attention score -- which measures the percentage of an ad that is played across the TV device. That mark was the second highest of all beer spots (with at least $500,000 spent) in 2020. “The Message” wasn’t too far behind at 97.1 (seventh in the industry).