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Free Budweiser For 500,000 People

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published

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Anheuser-Busch InBev plans to give out 500,000 free samples of Budweiser beer over the next few weeks.  The offer will target upscale bars and restaurants. According to Reuters, “In addition to the free samples, which Anheuser hopes will attract new drinkers, the company plans to reallocate most of its media spending to the Budweiser brand, which has been declining domestically for over 20 years.”

According to the new Interbrand study of the worlds most valuable brands, Budweiser is worth $12.3 billion. Part of the reason is traditional marketing, part is due to the brand’s success over decades, and part is due to its success with social media.

The “sample” school of marketing has created a multitude of programs over the years. Food stores often give away free samples. Large consumer products companies including Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) offer free samples of detergent through the mail. There are dozens of “free sample” sites listed in a Google search of the term. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) has a website that offers product samples without cost ranging from music to mouthwash to over-the-counter medicines.

Anheuser-Busch is taking very little risk with its program. Although shipments of the beer are down, it still holds more than 50% of the US market. Regular drinkers of Bud may get a day’s free beer, but they will have to pay to get more.

Attracting upscale beer consumers is a challenge for Anheuser Busch. Heineken and Corona have corned much of the high-end of the market. Free samples are not likely to change that.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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