Eco-Friendly Hangers Sport Beer Ads

A recent article notes a new medium and a new target for some rather unconventional beer advertising - MillerCoors is using clothes hangers to sell beer to women.

Currently testing in Portland and Seattle, MGD 64, the 64-calorie extension of Miller Genuine Draft, is being pitched to female dry cleaners customers via a partnership with EcoHanger. Since July, customers who drop by their local dry cleaners have been taking home EcoHangers (clothes hangers made from 100% recycled materials), carrying the message "64 calories is a light beer - a perfect fit."

"The very nature of the EcoHanger makes it an efficient marketing vehicle because it exclusively reaches our adult female customer in the privacy of thier homes," said Jeff Gardiner, Northwest marketing manager for MillerCoors.

The MGD-64 ads are being distributed through the Hanger Network, which has a roster of 35,000 dry cleaners it uses as an advertising channel. Last year the company shipped more than 10 million hangers carrying messages from clients that include Van Heusen, Hershey, Arrow, L'Oreal, Nivea and Staples.

MillerCoors plans to launch MGD-64 nationally this fall. Heavy starching is in the plans.

Comments

[Michael]

Interesting new medium with a wide targeted reach. My only question is whether they are only putting them on orders women bring in or whether the dry cleaner market in general skews predominately female? Would love to see some stats on that. Seems to be a very targeted way to reach women.

[Ryan Karlstrom]

It would be very interesting to determine the ROI. There is obvious research that went into the target (demographics/psychographic), but would love to see how much engagement transpired. This is brand awareness marketing, thus very difficult to measure.

[Mike Reuter]

This is an interesting concept. Measuring the actual return will be a challenge. Does this create Brand awareness? I believe yes, but, does it create a non Brand advertising experience? Or, does this convey a bad message for the Brand? This unconditional approach to engage the consumer attention might be a distraction or turn off from purchasing the main focus item I believe.

Need to ask the question, will the consumer be turned off by this approach?