Coors Altitude's mysterious launch

In early 2015, the Coors family got bigger with the launch of Coors Altitude. At 6.4% ABV, Altitude is a distinctly different beer aimed at a distinctly different target.

Unlike Coors Light, which is associated with daytime and fun, Altitude is all about letting loose at night. This contrast sparked the essence of the brand: the alter ego, the side of ourselves that only comes out in certain circumstances.

In contrast to Coors Light and Coors Banquet, the goal for Altitude was to live primarily in the digital and social world, the space that would create momentum for the brand and intrigue among the urban millennial target, specifically within the high-energy party occasion.

Beginning with the packaging, which took Coors' icon of the mountain and presented it in a mysterious way, and continuing through all touchpoints, the launch put the idea of the mysterious alter ego on display. The element that connected everything was "Climb the other side," a call to action that united the brand imagery of mountains with the idea of the unseen side — the "other side" of the Coors Light mountain.

Given the target's savvy for detecting overt marketing, the first phase of the launch was deliberately mysterious and below-the-radar.

The launch unfolded with a minimally branded music video featuring the band Young Empires on an interactive site (socruel.ca) that quickly generated momentum and buzz. Teaser videos appeared in digital media, page takeovers began to appear, and the brand spread out to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine and YouTube. In major urban centres, transit added visibility, and subway dominations created a sense that something mysterious was underway.

With more than 124 million digital impressions across multiple channels, as well as 940,000 views of the socruel.ca website since the launch, a brand that was meant to be mysterious and below the radar has actually created a lot of visibility for itself.