From a national perspective, Michelob Golden Draft Light has been considered a bit of a dud sud for years. In the stable of Annheuser Busch, sales of this brew have been, to stay with a beer metaphor – skunky and flat.
However, for some inexplicable reason, in utter defiance of national trends, Minnesotan’s have been loving, supporting and going for it like nobody else.
Hmm, reminds me of this.
Furthering this anomaly is the fact that Mich Golden, even in limited distribution, has been and continues to be the the number one selling beer in the state.
With all this info in their arsenal the brass at Annheuser Busch decided that we in the upper midwest knew more about this beer than anyone else. So, five years ago, they hired Minneapolis advertising agency Martin Williams to keep that trend going.
A couple of weeks back, Vince Beggin, the writer on this account, tapped us to record a new campaign of radio spots designed to introduce the brand to Iowa and Nebraska.
Mary Lucia, local radio celeb, on mic at Babble-On
This new campaign would also mean a name change. With the whole “draft” beer kick now over – that piece of the moniker would be dropped. Additionally, Annheuser Busch wanted something very introductory in nature. Thus, the idea: Of all the new things you could try today, Mich Golden is by far the best.
Vince Beggin and Greg editing in “C” – Yours truly with “The Drill” – Joanna Jahn & Dan Armstrong
These radio spots, with their bits about home dentistry, dodge-ball and kitten juggling were ripe for a lot of audio post production and sound-design. Greg decided that his cat wouldn’t cotton to the idea of being pitched about so, (sigh) we decided to augment stock sound effects to get that mix together – you folks from PETA can call off your dogs. However, we did do a lot of other interesting foley effects using the official Martin Williams dodge-ball and three separate drills that we all brought in from home. The drills were necessary to get the right sound of a 3/8th’s inch drill bit diving down into someone’s fat maw. Yes, we were careful. Yes, we have workman’s comp.
While most of the voiceover talent we recorded was from the Twin Cities, we did record our announcer, Andy Milder, from Outlaw Sound in L.A. via Digital Patch using our new Source-Connect software – which, by the way, rocks.
Pop a cold one and have a listen. Here are “Speed Dating”, “Dodge Ball”, and “Rollerblading”,
Mary Lucia, Joe Weismann, Joanna Jahn, & Dan Armstrong can be booked through their Minneapolis voice-over talent agency, Wehmann Models and Talent, Inc. Colleen McClellan can be auditioned and scheduled through her voice-over agent, Moore Creative Talent, Inc. Special kudos go to Dave Hepp of Martin Williams who helped to concept this whole campaign.