A recent report has identified the advertising agency responsible for Bud Light’s disastrous collaboration with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Allegedly, the agency is in “serious panic mode” after the immense fallout from the marketing initiative.
The New York Post discovered that the California-based advertising firm, Captiv8, was behind the decision for Bud Light to partner with Mulvaney. The San Francisco area marketing agency is relatively young, under a decade old, and mainly works to connect brands with social media influencers to promote their products or services.
Capitv8 paired Bud Light with Mulvaney leading to the video which started the boycott of Bud Light. The video, posted to social media on April 1, featured the transgender influencer taking a bubble bath displaying a can of Bud Light. Furthermore, a promotional can of the beer with Mulvaney’s face on it was shown in a video. This ignited backlash nationwide, where Bud Light sales have plummeted along with Anheuser-Busch’s stock price.
Reportedly, Captiv8 is also concerned with the potential consequences it could face as the firm responsible for the controversial marketing move. According to sources familiar with the matter, there was palpable anxiety at the firm amid the intense fallout at Bud Light. The source claimed, “Internally, the company was in serious panic mode.” It isn’t clear whether Captiv8 was directly responsible for creating the social media video or the can with Mulvaney’s face on it.
According to Captiv8’s website, the company provides end-to-end influencer marketing with “best-in-class software” and “award-winning services.” The website features a plentiful amount of generic business lingo to convince clients it will make them money. Notably, one section titled “Diversity and Influence” discusses building “always-on diversity into all aspects of influencer programs.” It further elaborates on creating a “diverse and equitable influencer landscape” that amplifies “ethnicity, disabilities, and gender and sexuality identity.” That didn’t work out too well for Bud Light.
Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch has seen its stock price slide nearly 20 percent since Mulvaney’s April 1 social media post featuring the beer. This would place Anheuser-Busch’s stock in bear market territory. Based on recent calculations, this decline in stock price translates to roughly $27 billion in lost market value. Bud Light competitors like Molson Coors have been gaining market value amid AB InBev’s decline.
Bud Light sales have been consistently declining for the past two months, where in the week ending May 20, sales volume was down almost 30 percent, with revenue down nearly 26 percent. The decline in sales has ramped up week-over-week, suggesting the boycott is getting progressively stronger. Furthermore, other brands under Anheuser-Busch’s ownership appear to be affected by the boycott as they are also experiencing sales declines.
Beverage analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co., Jared Dinges, has a dreary outlook for Bud Light where he stated some consumers might not drink the beer for the “foreseeable future,” indicating no end in sight for the boycott. Furthermore, Bud Light is at risk of losing its status as the best-selling beer, where second place Modelo appears to be gaining sales momentum.
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