The NHL hockey playoffs are underway, and once again beer advertisers are going full throttle to capture the attention of a predominantly young, male demographic that will be glued to TVs for two straight months.

For creative teams and directors, this time of the year can be akin to Oscar season, with innovative beer spots revving up reputations and earning accolades and awards. For production houses, it is also a time to beef up bottom lines as budgets for other categories are bedraggled, partly because of over-dependence on U.S. advertisers mired in an uncertain economy.

Current buzz holds that 2003 may not rival the glory of recent years in which such big-splash award winners as ‘Rant,’ ‘Sin and Sentimentality,’ ‘Ulterior Emotions’ and ‘Fridge’ dazzled the industry from here to Cannes. But it shouldn’t be too shabby either, judging by the roundup of what hockey fans are seeing this time around (see sidebar on page S-5).

Creatives and production people say they welcome the opportunity to work on beer commercials, especially for the all-important hockey playoff season, which coincides with the beginning of spring and summer’s increased beer consumption.

‘Beer advertising is the most competitive consumer category of all and the competition is so fierce that there’s potential to do really good work,’ says Tina Petridis, executive producer at Toronto’s Industry Films. ‘A lot of our budgets have been slashed across the board, but beer clients are still prepared to spend the money it takes to do good ads.’

Graham Lee, partner/CD at Toronto’s Grip Advertising, which handles creative for such brands as Labatt Blue, Blue Light and Carlsberg, agrees. ‘There’s an opportunity with beer, particularly big beer like Labatt Blue, to make an upswing for the client [with effective advertising]. That encourages you to be very innovative.’

And that calibre of encouragement has kick-started many a trek toward fame and fortune, says Jeff McCrory of Toronto’s Downtown Partners, which creates ads for Budweiser and Bud Light. ‘With beer, you have the opportunity to do some award-winning stuff. So any time you go to make a beer ad, you better be figuring out how to do your best work regardless of when it will air.’

But the playoff season ‘is an especially bad time to lay an egg,’ says Jack Bensimon, president of Toronto’s Bensimon*Byrne, AOR for Molson Canadian, ‘because people are really paying attention. And any time you’ve got your work under that kind of a microscope, there’s all sorts of evaluation going on.’

Bensimon should know. On March 26, 2000, two weeks before the NHL playoffs, Molson Canadian launched the spot titled ‘Rant’ created by Bensimon*Byrne that not only became the hot topic of water-cooler conversation through that spring but also solidified the agency’s reputation as one of the hottest creative shops in the country. The spot, directed by Kevin Donovan and produced by Mad Films, also ignited Canadian’s market share, which rose 2.5% while Labatt Blue’s share dropped 2.9%. The spot took top prizes at the Bessies, Cassies and Marketing Awards.

The results were equally impressive for the Bud Light spot ‘Fridge’ created by Downtown Partners and produced by Industry Films. The spot took a number of top prizes in Canada and the U.S. in 2002, culminating in a Gold Lion at Cannes.

But can reputations actually be made with such superior beer ads? Petridis says yes. ‘Winning a Gold Lion for ‘Fridge’ really put our company on the map internationally and jump-started [Australian] director Paul Middleditch’s career in North America. That spot won so much praise all over the world that the agency was highlighted, the production company was highlighted and, of course, so was Budweiser.

‘Canada has a history of doing really sophisticated and creative beer ads,’ Petridis explains. ‘That translates into decent budgets and means that it’s exciting for any production house or director because the clients tend to buy into ideas you can actually execute, as opposed to seeing them stall in research.’

In a nutshell, concludes McCrory, the proposition is that ‘in Canada, there’s nothing greater than hockey for men, except for beer. So working on beer ads for the playoffs is even cooler than doing them for the Super Bowl because they’ll be in the spotlight for much longer than a single day.’

What’s on tap for spring

Labatt

The first spot in Labatt Blue’s much-praised, cinema-verite-style ‘Cheers to Friends’ campaign broke in mid-March during a Toronto Maple Leafs-Montreal Canadiens game. The rest of the 12-part series, produced by Toronto’s Avion Films and directed by Andrew Christie, will roll out during the playoffs. Graham Lee, partner/CD at Grip Advertising, oversaw the campaign, which features the antics and camaraderie of 50 non-union actors, some of whom are real-life friends.

An additional hockey-related spot for Labatt Blue will break this month, according to Labatt PR director Nigel Miller, ‘in support of a promotion for our patented washable ink technology which will place Original Six bottles and jerseys in cases of Labatt Blue.’

Molson

Arguably the quintessential hockey-oriented beer commercial – in that it features hockey commentator and icon Don Cherry and various plaid-bedecked lookalikes – ‘Twins’ will air during the playoffs to publicize Molson Canadian Bubba beer. A continuation of the ‘Bubba’ campaign that won a bronze at last month’s Marketing Awards for ‘Bubba BBQ/Found Organ,’ it was created by Bensimon*Byrne, with supervision from CD Glen Hunt and direction by Brown Entertainment’s Pete Henderson, who also directed the other ‘Bubba’ spots.

For Quebec, as part of Molson Export’s 100th anniversary celebrations, Molson Ex Light just made its market debut in the province. A humorous TV spot, created in Montreal by Cossette and produced by Kiss Films, is currently in the works and scheduled to break mid-April.

Budweiser

Two new Budweiser spots that first aired during the Super Bowl will repeat during the playoffs, according to Jeff McCrory of Downtown Partners. For Bud, there’s a new spot in the ongoing ‘Icons’ campaign called ‘Guitar,’ in which a young male musician becomes a famous rock star. For Bud Light, a spot called ‘History,’ which is the latest entry in the ‘Bud Light Institute’ campaign, lightheartedly depicts the Institute taking credit for women’s advancements, ‘all in aid of keeping women occupied so guys can go out for a beer,’ says McCrory.

Also slated to run throughout the playoffs is a humorous new spot produced by Toronto’s Radke Films for Downtown Partners. ‘Taxi’ broke on March 28 and spotlights Budweiser’s new 28-pack. Director Sean Anicic says the commercial plays off the extreme weight of the 28-pack by depicting a trunk-heavy Yellow Cab forced to drive at a 45-degree angle.

Kokanee

TV audiences in Canada’s western provinces will see three amusing spots for Kokanee beer produced by Radke Films for Downtown Partners. They are sequels to last year’s popular campaign in which forest rangers are attacked by packs of what director Matt Eastman calls ‘hooligan sasquatches’ intent on capturing stashes of Kokanee.