Beer commercials are big business. Ask the major advertising firms, the millions of people who watch the super bowl, or the bigwigs of the major beer companies that spend millions annually on television advertising. Each year, some of the most anticipated commercials during the Super Bowl are the beer ads. With staggering amounts of money spent on commercials and consumers eagerly anticipating them, one wonders why so few of the larger craft breweries (save for Samuel Adams) have gotten into the television commercial game.

While the effectiveness of television commercials can be debated, there is no doubt that some of the larger craft breweries have advertising budgets that could be spent on television commercials. But is there a need? The craft beer industry has always taken a grassroots approach and a DIY ethos to marketing themselves and growing their brands. Many of the most successful breweries have grown solely due to word of mouth and didn’t spend a dime advertising in their early years. Even though they may be spending money now on sponsorships or unique promotional events, it is not ingrained in many of these breweries to spend on traditional forms of advertising. And with the types of consumers craft beer attracts, who’s to say they would even respond to traditional television advertising?

Budweiser and Coors make a very mediocre product that they can market to the masses who want mediocrity. Television has traditionally been the route to reach these masses. Craft breweries turn out unique products that appeal to a much smaller (yet growing) segment of the market. As craft beers become more ubiquitous and market share grows, will we begin to see more craft breweries on air? Or will they stick to their off-kilter advertising approach? 

Despite the relative dearth of commercials in the craft brewing industry, one Canadian brewery has 100’s of commercials promoting its product – and they didn’t make a single one of them. Big Rock Brewery out of Calgary Alberta has been hosting its annual ‘Eddie Awards’ where amateur filmmakers are tasked with creating commercials promoting Big Rock Beer. The only catch? These commercials are never shown on TV – only at the festival. The awards ceremony, which was started in 1993, has grown to become one of the best parties in Canada. Amateur film makers write scripts, find the best shooting locations, and film the commercials. Some of them are what you’d expect from a bunch of amateur beer lovers while others are quite professional, but they all try to push the envelope in one way or another.

I personally love this idea. Big Rock has generated a huge buzz around this festival and the commercials are highly anticipated. And how much money has it cost Big Rock? Considerably less than a 30 second advertisement on the Super Bowl.

(note: if you’re interested in learning more about Big Rock Brewery and The Eddies, there is a documentary all about it.)