2025 Winner

CASE SUMMARY

Baseball is one of the biggest and most-watched sports in the world – which is why major brands spend millions of dollars to become official sponsors of the game and its star athletes. That includes Coors Light’s biggest competitor, who has been the official partner of Major League Baseball for over 30 years and its most
visible beer sponsor.

The challenge the brand was experiencing was how to break through the clutter and capture the attention of baseball fans, all while circumventing the limitations imposed by their competitor's exclusive sponsorship. That is, until one lucky moment provided the brand with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hack their way into the spotlight and steal the headlines as the only beer that the world of baseball is talking about.

In a game against the New York Mets, Shohei Ohtani, the greatest player in the league (and making a case for greatest of all time), sent a screaming foul ball into the stands – smashing our Coors Light ad – resulting in a black square of broken pixels right on our can. Instead of simply fixing this embarrassing imperfection, they embraced it, turning the flaw into an unofficial sports sponsorship.

Overnight (literally), a new limited-edition can design was born, an identical replica of Shohei's broken ad that included the same black square of damaged pixels in the precise spot where Shohei Ohtani made contact.

To promote it, they added the black square to their existing ads, including wild postings and OOH in and around the Anaheim area as well as every screen inside Angel Stadium when Ohtani returned home from the road trip.

Immediately, the idea went viral on social media, and soon fans were adding their own black square to existing Coors Light cans, merch and anything with the logo. It even became a piece of baseball memorabilia, as the brand auctioned off the broken panel from the ad to collectors for over $7,000.

The campaign quickly became a global phenomenon with media coverage in design, lifestyle and sports outlets all around the world. While generating over 140MM earned media impressions and reaching fans across the globe with
100% positive sentiment.

Coors Light even became one of the most highly sought-after products in Japan, Ohtani’s home country – so the brand brought the beer there for the first time ever.

The new cans sold out in under 24 hours and, most importantly, Coors Light trended higher than the actual official beer of baseball. They did this all with $0 in sports sponsorships and $0 in player endorsements – breaking the mold of sports sponsorships and marketing with just one “ugly” broken ad.

Credits

CCO: Aaron Starkman, Daniel Lobaton, Mike Dubrick
CSO: Sean McDonald
ECD: Xavier Blais
Creative Director: Yusong Zhang
ACD, Art Director: Nick Noh
ACD, Copywriter: Jordan Darnbrough
Producer: Kate A. Spencer
Director of Print Production: AJ Merrick
Studio Manager / Production Artist: Todd Bennett
Strategist: Marguerite Gaylie
Production Company: Mt Vernon
Executive Producer: Ken Franchi
Motion Camera: Sean Teegarden, Chad Sano
Still Camera: Christian Hoover Thompson II
DIT: CJ Miller
Audio: Erik Clabeaux
Production Assistant: Eric Ellis, Darian Grey, Kaylor Myers
PR Lead: Meredith Montgomery
Account Director: Sara Lemmermeyer
PR Intern: Marta Miklas
PR Agency: Phaedon
Senior Director: Samantha Miller
Account Director: Meaghan Daly
Media Relations Lead: Isaac Reynoso
Associate Director: Jack Satzinger
Partner, Managing Director: Marie Lunny
Account manager: Dishant Verma
Angels Baseball Sr. Director, Partnership Services: Bobby Kowan
Can Printers: Canworks Printing, BluEdge

Client:
CMO: Sofia Colucci
VP, Marketing: Marcelo Pascoa
Sr. Marketing Manager: Eric Kouri
Associate Marketing Manager: Saron Strait
Director of PR: Maya McDonald
Field Marketing Manager: Allie Mason