With a budget that outspends the start-up cost of most craft brewers, Anheuser-Busch will launch Bud Light Golden Wheat this fall.
The marketing budget for Bud Light Golden Wheat will be about $30 million, similar to the marketing budget for Bud Light Lime, said Keith Levy, Anheuser-Busch’s vice president of marketing. The ads will be online, outdoors, in print and on TV.
Levy said the brewer hopes to attract not only established Anheuser-Busch product drinkers but also “trendsetters” who want to try something new. Anheuser-Busch wants to tap into the surge in popularity of sweeter beers and wheat beers from craft brewers. MillerCoors’ wheat beers include Blue Moon, Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat and Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss.
But “we’re not trying to outcraft craft,” Levy said. “We’re trying to capitalize on an emerging style.”
The beer will use unfiltered wheat so it will look cloudier than its Bud Light counterpart and will have orange and coriander as ingredients to give it a more complex, sweeter taste, Levy said.