Prologue

Let’s start today’s episode with a thought experiment. Imagine for a moment that you are the Vice President of Marketing of a beer company, Molson-Coors, responsible for sales of Coors Light. In real life, someone already has that job. His name is Marcelo Pascoa. For a moment, imagine yourself in his shoes.

Here’s the scenario: You’ve asked your advertising agency to brainstorm ideas for a brand engagement campaign targeted to drinkers of light beer, aged 21 to 34.

As expected, the ad agency proposed a stunt supported by social media, which is typical of beer activation campaigns. What was unusual, however, was rather than using advertising to promote the stunt, the agency proposed using the advertising itself as the stunt. Now, keep in mind, this is for real: The ad agency proposed promoting Coors Light on a new type of billboard that no one could see.

You heard that right: The agency proposed painting advertising messages on flat rooftops that no one could see from the ground. And even if they could see the billboards, the font proposed for the text was stretched to the point of being difficult to read.

Can you imagine any circumstances where you would have greenlighted that ad campaign?

As you consider that, note that there are already many pre-existing advertising options to reach 21-34 year olds when out-of-home:

• In the United States, there are over 350,000 roadside billboards placed near high traffic areas. Thousands of those billboards are now digital, capable of displaying dynamic messaging and even video. Mobile trucks with digital billboards on the sides can be driven through entertainment areas where young adults congregate.
• Beyond that, there are 2.3 million transit advertising opportunities, such as signage inside buses on routes popular with young adults.
• And there are almost 1.4 million place-based digital advertising screens, in settings like fitness clubs, restaurants, and movie theaters.

The point is: The advertising agency for Coors Light could have proposed reaching 21-34 year olds on any of the pre-existing 4 million out-of-home ad placement opportunities.

So, if your ad agency proposed a million-dollar campaign to paint billboards on flat rooftops – even though no one could see the ads from the street – would you have approved? Marcelo Pascoa did. And that advertising campaign went on to win many of the ad industry’s most prestigious awards. Deservedly so. You’ll find out why on this episode of Meaningful Impact.

Introduction

Oh, to have been a fly-on-the wall when the advertising agency for Coors Light pitched the idea that would eventually become known as ‘Chillboards’. The pure audacity of that pitch thrills me.

Chillboards were so named because they are billboards that “chill.” At the top of buildings with black roofs, advertising Chillboards were painted with a special, white reflective coating that blocks 85% of the heat from sunlight.

To understand why, here is today’s one minute science lesson: Black roofs have a low albedo, which means they absorb much of the sun’s solar radiation. On hot days, black roofs can reach surface temperatures as high as 170 degrees as they transfer some of the absorbed heat from a building’s roof to the dwellings below. On the other hand, white roofs have a high albedo, which means that they reflect much of the sun’s rays and therefore don’t absorb or transfer as much heat. Reflecting that heat away lowers the surface temperature of the roofs by as much as 50 degrees, which in turn lowers the temperature of the dwellings below the roofs by as much as 10 degrees.

Though hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods tend to capture national news headlines, extreme heat is actually the most deadly weather-related killer in the United States, especially among older and health-compromised Americans.

In a Coors Light produced video, the Chief Heat Officer of Miami-Dade County, Jane Gilbert, explains the cause of the problem:

Jane Gilbert: “We have far more days over 90 degrees than we had just a few decades ago. Black roofs can get over 170 degrees affecting everyone who lives under them.”

Disadvantaged urban neighborhoods have relatively fewer trees and smaller lawns to absorb the heat. The burden of climate change isn’t evenly spread.

Jane Gilbert: “Residents in lower-income neighborhoods endure far higher temperatures than those in wealthier neighborhoods.”

When black roofs are covered by reflective white paint, that reduces the need to use air conditioning, saving both electricity, and money that can be used for other high priorities such as medicines or food.

Jane Gilbert: “If you have to make a choice between putting food on your table and keeping yourself cool at night, that’s a really unfortunate choice.”

Promoting energy conservation with Chillboards that simultaneously conserve energy was a bold, big idea acclaimed by the creative community for the campaign’s innovations. We’ll get into that.

But my primary reason for sharing this story with you has more to do with highlighting the people who championed the Chillboards idea and how they managed to tap a beer marketing budget to pay for it.

That’s the magic in today’s story. Though Coors Light did not specifically request a purpose-driven campaign, they accepted the idea when proposed by their ad agency. Coors Light allocated more than a million dollars from their marketing budget because, as it turns out, mutually-beneficial corporate citizenship was in their motivated self-interest. Chillboards were a triple win: a win for energy conservation, a win for Molson-Coors, and a win for the 53 members of the much-awarded Chillboards project team.

When we return, I’ll walk you through the creative journey which led to the Chillboards cause marketing campaign, starting at the beginning, with the Creative Brief.

The Chillboards Creative Brief

While not publicly disclosed, we can make reasonable inferences about what the Creative Brief contained. As I review the key points, try to forget that you already know the outcome: Chillboards. Instead, imagine yourself at the original ad brainstorming session, where you have wide latitude to dream-up advertising ideas to promote Coors Light.

Goal

So, here we go with our presumed Creative Brief, starting with the goal: First and foremost, Coors Light wanted proposals for a brand activation campaign. An activation is typically a one-time event, stunt, or short-term promotion that tries to generate buzz and entice the target audience into engaging with a brand. For instance, an incentive might be offered to share a brand’s social media post or to enter a contest.

As an example, what you’re about to hear is a Coors Light activation commercial. The ad features ESPN college-football analyst Kirk Herbstreit as he’s standing in a bar while holding a basket full of laundry.

Kirk Herbstreit: “Coors Light wants to keep your chores light. Enter now for a chance to win a whole season of free laundry service while you chill and watch the games.”

Coors Light’s Target Audience

Second, the Creative Brief would define the target audience and their attitudes: For Coors Light, the primary audience is legal-aged young adults, 21-34 years old, particularly the light beer drinkers among them.

They’re a challenging group to persuade, because they tend to filter out and ignore familiar beer advertising tropes, a phenomenon that Molson-Coors executives have referred to as ‘beer blindness.’ Yet, what’s also true is that young adults have a salient need that beer can solve, at least momentarily. Many 21–34-year-olds live a lifestyle that is nearly always connected; always-on. To help deal with that, young adults can take a break from connected society by pausing to drink a beer, perhaps socially with a friend.

The trouble for Molson Coors, however, is that beer is losing its place as a ‘pause that refreshes.’ Coors Light was losing some of their younger drinkers to beer alternatives, including: low carb beverages such as seltzer, ready-to-drink cocktails, and legalized cannabis. In the US, medical marijuana is legal in 38 states. Cannabis for recreational use is legal in 24 states.

Thus, among the 21–34-year-old target market, Coors Light was losing interest and relevance. Another activation campaign would be needed so that legal age, younger drinkers would re-consider Coors Light.

One way to breakthrough to young adults is to attract their interest by doing good for a cause they care about.

Coors Light’s Brand Guidelines

Third, the Creative Brief would also include brand compliance guidelines. Specifically, the activation campaign would need to reinforce the positioning of Coors Light as the beer ‘made to chill.’

In a direct sense, Coors Light is ‘made to chill’ because the beer is actually produced and packaged to provide a ‘frost-brewed taste’ when chilled.

Commercial Voiceover: “Coors Light. It’s a frost-brewed beer. It starts with cold mountain water. It’s brewed down as cold as 34 degrees. It’s put in a can cold with a frost brew liner that protects that frost-brewed taste.”

Associating “chill” with “cold” is further reinforced on Coors Light packaging, which says that the beer is ‘cold lagered,’ ‘cold filtered,’ and ‘cold packaged.’ The word Cold is rendered in the same stylized typeface as Coors.

Advertising images feature water condensation on Coors Light cans and bottles, as if they were recently removed from a cooler filled with ice.

The front of the beer features the registered trademark ‘Cold as the Rockies,’ a snow-covered image of the Rocky Mountains, and a bit of packaging magic.

Commercial Voiceover: “The cold-activated bottle from Coors Light. The Mountains on the label turn blue when your beer is as cold as the Rockies.”

I hold in my hand a 24-ounce can of Coors Light, chilled to the optimal serving temperature of 43 degrees. I can personally attest that when the can is chilled, the color of the Rocky Mountains does, in fact, change from a snow-gray to an icy blue. In case you’re wondering, that packaging magic is achieved by printing with a thermochromic ink that changes color when exposed to cold.

In any case, ‘cold’ is a feature. Coors Light also uses ‘made to chill’ to express several consumer benefits.

Foundationally, ‘made to chill’ is used as a synonym for ‘refreshment’.

Commercial Voiceover: “Refreshment isn’t everything. It’s the only thing. Frost-brewed Coors Light: The world’s most refreshing beer.”

That commercial is a goodie, but an oldie in style, perhaps not irreverent enough to breakthrough to today’s 21–34-year-old beer drinkers. A core benefit of Coors Light remains refreshment; even when the brand personality is updated:

Commercial Voiceover: “Oh, there’s Coors Light. Well mouth desert, meet ice-cold beer. Mountain-cold refreshment. That’s chill.”

Since I’ve got the 24-ounce can of Coors Light on my desk, I feel a responsibility to test whether or not ice-cold Coors Light is actually refreshing. One moment please. Yes. Refreshing indeed.

Yet, at other times, Coors Light uses the concept of ‘chill’ as a synonym for ‘relaxing.’ I’ll play an example, where a narrator – talking at a relaxed pace – describes the grand prize of a Coors Light contest: a long weekend so relaxing that it will feel like ‘temporary retirement’:

Commercial Voiceover: “This summer, Coors Light welcomes you to temporary retirement. A getaway for you and your chillest friends to the chillest retirement destination in the US.”

The commercial features young adults relaxing while holding cans of Coors Light.

Commercial Voiceover: “Yes, this summer you can pack your golden years into one long weekend with all the activities of a retired lifestyle and all the Coors Light we could responsibly fit into one Arizona villa.”

Coors Light is often portrayed in commercials as the way to enjoy ‘a moment of chill’ as if the beer were the antidote for pressures of ‘always on’ culture.

Yet, in other commercials, Coors Light portrays ‘chill’ as a synonym for not taking things too seriously, sprinkled with a subversive irreverence to norms. For instance, the scene for this next clip is a convenience store where a customer sticks his head into a Coors Light beer fridge to get “unofficial free air conditioning.”

Commercial Voiceover: “Air conditioning is free with every purchase. The best things in summer are unofficial. Coors Light. The official beer of everything unofficial.”

So, to summarize, the brand guidelines in the Creative Brief likely required the campaign to reinforce at least one of the approved meanings of ‘made to chill,’ such as:

• Made to be Cold
• Made to Refresh
• Made to Relax
• Made to not take things too seriously

Cause Marketing?

All that being said, let’s recognize what was conspicuously absent from the Creative Brief: Nowhere did the Creative Brief require a cause marketing campaign – consistent with precedent. For instance, as we heard earlier, the Coors Light ‘Chores Light’ laundry activation did not support a philanthropic cause. Nor was there a cause promoted with the Coors Light temporary retirement weekend activation.

But, this time, Coors Light did seek an activation campaign that created affinity with a meaning of chill that went beyond direct product benefits. Their ad agencies were challenged to answer this question: “How could Coors Light help chill everyone?”

When we return, I’ll introduce you to the key players and explain how they took the opportunity that the creative brief gave them to make a meaningful impact.

Chillboards Brainstorming

Doyle Dane Bernbach, better known as “DDB”, was the lead advertising agency for the Chillboards campaign. DDB is actually a network of related companies. In fact, the Chillboards campaign was the collective brainchild of several creative teams collaborating from multiple locations:

• NORD DDB, based in Copenhagen
• adam&eveDDB, headquartered in London
• DDB USA’s office in Chicago

Six more agencies would be brought-in to produce the campaign. In all, the campaign’s project team included 53 people from 9 agencies and the client, Molson-Coors.

At the outset of brainstorming, the ad agencies asked themselves how Coors Light could help ‘chill the world.’ That put the agencies in the position of having a hero (Coors Light) and a superpower (chilling the world) in search of a problem to solve.

Through their research, one of the issues identified by the creative team was the problem of black roofs in hot climates.

I imagine that their interest was peaked upon discovering that a high albedo roof is known as a ‘Cool Roof.’ That’s the established term: ‘Cool Roof.’ The brand promise of a reflective paint that cools a roof feels remarkably similar to the brand promise of a refreshing beer ‘made to chill.’ Not only that, transforming a problem roof into a cool roof with just a few buckets of paint met the Molson-Coors requirement for the ‘chill the world’ solution to be “accessible for everyone.”

Unfortunately, linking Coors Light to cool roofs was such a good concept that the idea wasn’t actually new. In fact, it turned out that affinity with cool roofs had been pitched to Molson-Coors before – and rejected by Molson-Coors before – likely due to doubts about the viral potential of such a campaign. If cool roofs were to be considered again, a more compelling news hook would be needed to generate buzz.

The breakthrough came when the creative team reframed their challenge, by asking: “What if the ads (themselves) could chill communities as much as Coors Light does?” That led to the idea of painting white, reflective headline ads on otherwise hot rooftops. The creative team imagined painting headlines such as: ‘This Ad Chills Literally’ and ‘The Coolest Ads in America.’ Functionally, the typeface used for the text of the headlines would need to be blocky enough to cover most of the roof’s surface area.

The hope was that the novel advertising medium, which they initially dubbed ‘Cool Boards,’ would bring attention both to Coors Light and the benefits of cool roofs.

That led to the next question: “What should ‘Cool Boards’ look like?” Adam&eveDDB proposed writing the Cool Boards with enormous lettering, extending across several hundred adjacent houses, so that the promotional headlines could be viewed from space. The NORD DDB Copenhagen office suggested the eventually-selected idea of painting one headline per rooftop, using a custom font for maximum surface coverage.

Potential headlines for the Cool Boards were floated over multiple rounds of brainstorming. During that back-and-forth, a copywriter at adam&eveDDB proposed the term ‘Chillboards’ as a headline. Not only was that headline accepted, the team decided to change the name of their innovative rooftop advertising medium from ‘Cool Boards’ to ‘Chillboards,’ to better align with Coors Light ‘Made to Chill’ branding. The credit for coining the term ‘Chillboards’ goes to adam&eveDDB copywriter Jess West.

At least, the second time around.

Because, as it also turns out, the term Chillboards was not a new idea either. Instead, in 2008, an outdoor advertising company named Allover Media filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to trademark the term ‘Chillboards.’ That application was abandoned in 2011, making use of the term ‘Chillboards’ fair game.

Similarly, guess what else was not new: The idea of applying a specialized paint to a surface as both a solution to a problem as well as way to advertise that solution. For example, the Absolut Street Trees campaign, by Absolut Vodka, premiered three years earlier than Chillboards.

Case study voiceover: “Absolut presents Street Trees. We invited famous street artists to use creativity as a tool of change to paint trees on giant walls.”

In Mexico City, street artists were given photocatalytic paints which produce an effect similar to photosynthesis, turning painted walls into air purifiers.

Case study voiceover: “Absolut Street Trees purified the same amount of air as 2,000 square meters of real trees which eliminates the equivalent of pollution generated by 600,000 cars.”

An adage comes to mind: ‘There is nothing new under the sun.’ Except that there was an aspect of the Chillboards idea that, as far as I am aware, was entirely original, as expressed in the campaign’s tagline: “Billboards nobody can see but everybody can feel.” That’s the provocative news hook. Without the support of a significant paid media budget, the proposed Chillboards campaign was audacious because it had to be attention-grabbing, to earn media coverage and peer-to-peer sharing via social media.

Though it was bold to pitch ads that no one could see, DDB knew they were proposing the idea to the right client. According to Molson-Coors VP of Marketing Marcelo Pascoa: “We like to test the boundaries in our advertising. Most brands wouldn’t put billboards in places where people can’t see them. But Coors Light did. Our motivation was to bring awareness to this simple energy-saving tip and help cool down Americans during the start of the hottest season of the year.”

Chillboards Production

With Molson-Coors’ approval, production began in earnest.

DDB Chicago was keen on concentrating the Chillboards pilot program in a high-need area to serve a community. For captivating visual effect, the rooftops of the buildings in that community would need to be closely spaced, so that drone footage from above could display all the Chillboards at once. Ideally, the roofs would be large, like the roofs of multi-unit apartment buildings.

Using Google Earth, hundreds of communities were scouted, including 50 locations in Miami. The creative team reached out to apartment block owners to assess their interest in participation. DDB and HELO finally found an ideal and willing community at the Knight Center housing development located in the Little Haiti District of Miami, Florida. The housing development featured 12 equally-sized apartment buildings, each with 3,000 square feet of black roof surface. To put that in perspective, each Chillboard would cover an area more than four times the size of a typical billboard.

The NORD ID design team engineered the typography to remain relatively legible while covering 96% of each black roof. The team succeeded in creating a blocky font, with each character designed in at least 10 different thicknesses, so that the lettering of a headline could cover a flat, rectangular roof of any dimension, leaving only 4% of the surface area unpainted for unmitigated solar radiation to pass through. As a public service, the adaptable custom font was made freely-available for download.

Meanwhile, DDB Chicago did the research to find a suitable paint, selecting an acrylic roof coating called A-300 Finish, which is manufactured by Mule-Hide Products. A-300 Finish has an initial solar reflectance of 0.85, which means that a newly-coated roof will reflect 85% of solar radiation.

When approached to manage the production, many companies balked at the considerable challenges. But HELO accepted. Their team took the time to develop trust with the residents of the Knight Center housing development, convincing some to offer testimonials on-camera. HELO enlisted the help of a popular street artist, Efren Andaluz III, better known as Andaluz The Artist, to layout the lettering of the headlines and then outline those letters on each roof. A team of 12 painters then spent 10 days in withering heat and humidity to paint the Chillboards.

The marquee component of the Chillboards campaign was a one minute and thirty-eight second short film, directed by Set Free Richardson.

The documentary-style ad opens with an image of a hot sun rising over a Miami palm tree, followed by stylistically out-of-focus video of a traffic jam in sweltering heat. Jane Gilbert narrates that scene and then introduces herself.

Jane Gilbert: “Extreme heat is a challenge in cities worldwide. I’m Jane Gilbert. I’m the Chief Heat Officer for Miami-Dade County.”

Shown in front of an 8-unit, two-story apartment building, Jane Gilbert explains the hazards of black roofs in Miami’s climate. As she speaks, an aerial shot shows the apartment complex from a birds-eye view. There are 12 two-story apartment buildings, laid out in two rows of 6. All of the buildings have flat black roofs which appear scorched from the sun. There are palm trees scattered throughout the complex, but a significant portion of their leaves are browned. Window air conditioning units, rust on stairwells, and large stenciled numbers on each of the buildings convey the feeling of low-income housing.

The mood of the video changes, as the background music transitions from foreboding to hopeful. A happy resident is shown outside social socializing with others. A can of Coors Light is nearby. The on-screen text says, “Coors Light is Made to Chill. What if our ads could chill communities as much as our beer does? Coors Light presents Chillboards… billboards nobody can see but everybody can feel.”

Concurrently, an ariel shot shows a man painting a formerly black roof that is now almost fully covered by white, blocky letters, spelling: C-H-I-L-L-B-O-A-R-D-S.

As Jane Gilbert narrates off-camera, painters are seen using an instrument to measure the surface temperature of the roof, demonstrating that the black, unpainted surfaces are 149 degrees while the surfaces covered in white reflective paint are just 99 degrees, a 50-degree improvement. Drone footage reveals that each roof is painted with a Coors Light logo and a unique headline.

Some of those headlines advocate for cool roofs, including the Chillboards on:

• Roof 1: “Refresh Your Roof”
• Roof 4: “Chillboards Reflect 85% Sunlight”
• Roof 8: “Chillboards Help Cut AC Costs”
• Roof 10: “Chilling this Roof up to 50 Degrees”

Some of the headlines highlight the innovative features of the advertising, including the Chillboards on:

• Roof 3: “Ads Up Temps Down”
• Roof 5: “This Ad Chills Literally”
• Roof 6: “The Coolest Ads in America”
• Roof 7: “12 Chillboards 96 Chiller Apts”
• Roof 11: “Chillboards”
• Roof 12: “Ads Nobody Can See But Everyone Can Feel”

The remaining couple of headlines promote Coors Light, including the Chillboards on:

• Roof 2: “It’s Like a Coors Light for Your Home”
• Roof 9: “Made to Chill”

Unidentified building residents then offer their perspectives:

• Resident 1: “We’re always having to keep the air on and having that on all day is expensive.”
• Resident 2: “I’ve never seen ads on top of the roof, where it’s helping the community.”

Jane Gilbert, a public official, concludes her comments with an unambiguous endorsement of Chillboards and their mission.

Jane Gilbert: “We’re working on policies at the state level to encourage cool and white roofs. These Chillboards raise people’s awareness all over the world. And that’s a great thing. I’d love to see this on more roofs across America.”

The short film ends with a call-to-action, in the form of on-screen text, which says: “Coors Light is giving away 5,000 gallons of white paint. Learn more at Chillboards.com. Coors Light. Made to Chill.”

Chillboards Promotion

Both the short film, and a 15-second teaser version for social media, promoted a Chillboards campaign microsite at Chillboards.com.

That microsite is no longer live, but when it was, the site included the rationale for cool roofs, an exhibition of the Chillboards, and information about the paint-giveaway sweepstakes.

Coors Light also promoted the Chillboards sweepstakes from its own social media accounts at Instagram and Twitter (now known as ‘X’). For instance, the activation tweet at Twitter read: “Introducing Chillboards: rooftop billboards made with paint that helps cool down buildings! The first 1000 followers who comment #Chillboards #Sweeps and tag @CoorsLight are entered for a chance to win 5 gallons of paint (in the form of $80) to cool their roofs, too. Link in bio.” The tweet was accompanied by the 15-second teaser video.

Those were the key components of the Chillboards campaign.

So, did the cause marketing activation work? You’ll find out, when we return.

The Results

The Chillboards campaign achieved a triple win:

1. a win for a cause (energy conservation)
2. a win for a company (Molson-Coors)
3. a win for the project team members

For the cause: The benefits of cool roofs were promoted by 28 million earned media impressions and echoed at Twitter and Instagram by those entering the Chillboards sweepstakes. On hot days, the residents of the Chillboards pilot community benefited from a 50° reduction in roof surface temperature, yielding a 10° reduction in temperature inside their apartments. The reduced need for air conditioning lowered the resident’s AC costs by 20%, representing an average annual savings of over $400 per apartment.

Molson-Coors was also a winner. In fact, the Chillboards campaign performed better than anticipated. During the month of that Coors Light activation campaign, engagement increased 6x compared to benchmarks. Among the target audience, positive impressions of Coors Light rose 22.2 points and purchase consideration jumped by an incredible 42.4 points. Most tellingly, Coors Light sales for the month increased by 7.4% in Florida and 9.7% in the greater Southeast region.

Deservedly, the 53 members of the Chillboards project team were recognized with many of the ad industry’s most prestigious awards, including at the Cannes Lions Festival, where Chillboards was on the short list for the festival’s most esteemed award, the Titanium Grand Prix. Reportedly, the Chillboards campaign also inspired tremendous pride at Molson-Coors companywide, from the breweries to the distributors.

Permission Structure

Yet, it’s hard to imagine the Chillboards campaign happening without the purpose-driven leadership of Marcelo Pascoa, who described his role as VP of Marketing at Molson-Coors this way: “We’re here to drive business results; to generate sales. But we also have the opportunity to give back to the communities we serve. And if we can do things to make the world a little bit better – in our case a little bit more chill – why not?”

I wish all marketers felt that way. I bet that the advertising agency for Coors Light, DDB, would not have had the audacity to propose the Chillboards campaign were it not for the permission structure offered by Pascoa’s commitment to mutually-beneficial corporate citizenship.

The following words are his: “We, as marketers… deal with some pretty healthy budgets. A lot of money goes through marketing. Of course we want to sell our products and advance our brands. But if we can use some of our resources – I’m not only talking about money; I’m (also) talking about the very talented people who work in this industry; I’m (also) talking about all the creativity that permeates everything we do – if we can use some of those resources to have a positive impact in the world, wouldn’t we just be happier about what we do?”

Yes. Indeed. I agree.

When we return, we’ll conclude this Chillboards episode by answering The Big Question.

The Big Question – Why No Roll-Out?

For some listeners, I imagine that The Big Question is: Do the residents of the Knight Center housing development still have to live with beer advertising on their roofs? The answer: No, they don’t. After the campaign, Molson-Coors paid to have the roofs repainted, covering 100% of the surface area with reflective white paint.

For me, however, the Big Question is: If the Chillboards pilot in Miami was so successful, why didn’t Coors Light roll-out the campaign more broadly?

There are two answers to this, one simple and the other wishful, but hopefully still instructive.

The simple answer is: The Chillboards campaign did not roll-out because the stunt was always intended to be a one-time activation campaign. That’s typical of Coors Light tactics. The beer brand tries to make a momentary splash with each ephemeral stunt and then moves on to the next new promotion.

The wishful answer is: If the next Coors Light cause marketing campaign does as well or better than Chillboards at increasing purchase intention and sales, then I hope that Molson-Coors will support that cause campaign with national paid advertising and a roll-out.

For that to happen, I offer the following unsolicited advice: Choose a cause more aligned than Chillboards with the strategic priorities of Molson-Coors.

Consider this: Promoting cool roofs is admirable and important. But cool roofs aren’t a sustainability priority of Molson-Coors, which has instead been more focused on eliminating plastic from beer packaging. Two months before the Chillboards campaign launched, Coors Light announced an initiative to eliminate the use of plastic six-pack rings, including an investment of $85 million to buy new factory machinery to accommodate the plastic-free packaging.

Voiceover: “Coors pioneered the recyclable aluminum can. We are once again committing to sustainable packaging by becoming the largest beer brand in North America to remove plastic rings from our six packs.”

That’s a big deal, because lightweight plastic rings can get blown by the wind from garbage into lakes and into oceans. According to reporting by the Associated Press: As many as one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed every year by six-pack rings. Further, 57% of US consumers say that plastic-free packaging is very important in their purchasing decisions, according to research firm GlobalData, which added that plastic rings used in beer packaging have received “heavy backlash following viral images of ocean wildlife getting caught up in them.”

Voiceover: “By 2025, we will eliminate 400,000 pounds of plastic rings from the environment every year and will do it with our new sustainable packaging because buying beer shouldn’t mean buying plastic.”

“Buying beer shouldn’t mean buying plastic.” That feels like a promising tagline likely to resonate with 21-34 year old light beer drinkers. And, that sustainability messaging would relate directly to Coors Light differentiation, Gen Z concerns, and a high priority of the corporate responsibility team at Molson-Coors.

On the other hand, cool roofs, though a serious issue, are not directly related to beer and are not among the marquee sustainability initiatives at Molson-Coors.

The same conclusion can be reached by comparing the relative importance of cool roofs to other high priorities of Molson-Coors, such as those pursued by their Government Affairs department. Molson Coors, according to Open Secrets, spent $2.8 million on external lobbyists in 2022, which occurred during the same year as the Chillboards campaign. Notably, however, cool roofs were not among the issues lobbied by Molson-Coors that year.

So, I’m left to wonder what would have happened if the ad agencies for Coors Light had brainstormed an activation to “chill the world” that was more aligned with the strategic priorities of Molson-Coors.

But what I do know is that I have deep admiration for the audacity of DDB to recommend energy conserving billboards that no one could see. And I have equally deep admiration for Marcelo Pascoa and his team for creating the permission structure that allowed the marketing budget to be tapped for a cause-related activation.

Coors Light has committed to eliminating 400,000 pounds of plastic rings from the environment. Let’s standby and see if promoting plastic-free packaging becomes a future Coors Light cause marketing campaign. If rolled-out, that could have a very meaningful impact.