We’ve seen the legitimate effectiveness of crowdsourcing in the graphic design arena withcrowdSPRING, in the food and beverage industry with Vitaminwater’s latest campaign, and arguably the iPhone app revolution, but recently the strength-in-numbers concept has recently been taken to a new level.
Advertising agencies Ad Store and Forza Migliozzi have joined together in a crowdsourcing effort supposedlyto purchase the long-for sale Pabst Breweing Company. Establishing a website – www.buyabrewery.com – with the mission statement of “Together we can crowdsource to buy Pabst Brewing Company,” Ad Store and Forza appeal: “So, c’mon, let’s have a beer together.”
The concept could just as easily have been inspired by a case of the famous Blue Ribbon Brew in a dorm room as it could by a cost-benefit analysis in a board room, but nonetheless, the two companies have put it into action. Logistically, the site enables would-be shareholders to make donations for as little as $5.00 that are then added to a projected pool of donations reflected in a running tally of dollars donated (which is currently shown in the central ticker to be $298,654,345, suggesting that this seemingly preposterous feat has actually gained traction). Donations will be collected, again supposedly, once the $300,000,000 mark is hit.
But don’t get your hopes up just yet. If this is an actual acquisition, then I’m a Carolina fan (full disclosure: I’m a Duke fan… by the transitive property, this is not an actual acquisition).
Red flags abound as there is no guaranteed method for recouping donations once the benchmark amount is hit, nor is there any semblance of legality to the process, as there is not even a safeguard to ensure sufficient legal age for involvement.
However, this is a very clever marketing and ad campaign, a prime example of how to enlist foot soldiers to reinvigorate a brand. It will be interesting to see across several months the impact it has on the PBR bottom-line. Sorry, but your dreams of brewery ownership will have to stay on that lofty fraternity house shelf for the time being.
