What is an advertising idea? Example: It's Miller Time

Let me show you what is a big idea in advertising with the re-birth of It’s Miller Time. 

A big idea is a brand idea that doesn’t change from campaign to campaign. It is an idea that can have legs across a number of media, cultural moments and creative executions. 

MILLER LITE

So let’s look at the big idea from Miller Lite and how it has evolved and grown over multiple campaigns. 

To set the context the business problem is that Lite Beer has been displaced as the drink of choice for party occasions by hard seltzers. Young adults just want to drink White Claw. 

This was tough because Lite Beer had been fighting over the party occasion for a long time, with who could go bigger and better at each step. 

The relaunch of It's Miller Time needed to find a new occasion for when people drank the beer. 

The low-key drinks with friends was the antithesis of the over-the-top epic night out.

They started by defining the enemy of Miller and young adults which was social media and technology.

The consumer problem identified was that young adults feel pressure to curate a new life (on social) that others will ‘like’, instead of doing what they like. 

Which was hanging out with friends. 

The original tie to the beer of being the original lite beer and the original social media.

The next ad the problem is still the enemy of tech watching the football via mobile updates but it broadens out to doing things you don't want to be doing 'shopping for a couch' versus watching the game with friends.

The idea platform grows here with a spot that brings It’s Miller Time to life at christmas, where we see how it doesn't have to be just tech but the things we are forced to do versus the things we really want to do.

The crosshairs are firmly on the forced fun of holiday work parties. 

Again they broaden away from just tech and show another great moment of what we really want to do versus what we're expected to do with the afternoon tea with the in-laws

Finally they’ve created the Shoezie, taking the original Dad shoe, the white new balance and making it into a beer holder for Father’s Day. (spot)

This is another great evolution of the big idea, because we have gone from the ad formula of the moment we don't like but do anyway versus the moment we really do. 

To celebrating someone who lives by doing what they like all the time.

The core idea is that Miller Time is about doing what you really want, versus what everyone else expects you to do. 

That stays true through all of the pieces and comes to life in different media, creative executions, and cultural moments. 

A great example of an idea platform. 

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