The Miller High Life One Second Ad is one of many PR case studies profiled in the textbook, Public Relations Cases. In collaboration with Dig Communications, Miller High Life developed a newsworthy, attention-getting, beer-selling campaign where a series of one-second ads were televised during the Super Bowl game in 2009. This was not only a great commercial, but it was a smart commercial; one that continues to be studied today.
The Case of Miller High Life One Second Ad is a Public Relations case that falls under the category of social media cases. According to Hayes, Hendrix and Kumar, social media involves three distinct components. First, there is a new level of two-way engagement with key target audiences. Today, people expect a voice and expect to be heard using social media venues as their speaker’s dais. Second, the communication process is powered by ever changing and evolving digital technologies. Twitter, Facebook, and You Tube have a very short life compared to legacy communication systems like newspapers, but they will shortly be supplemented, or even supplanted, by a host of new capabilities. Smart phones will eventually give way to a new generation of mobile devices that enhance communication and connectivity. Third, the technologies offer an ease and simplicity of publishing and producing information that allows digital savvy citizens to easily contribute to the public discourse. For example, viral emails circulated among friends become published commentary and connect people and ideas. Satirical videos shot on a smart phone and posted on YouTube may be seen by millions within hours. Taken together, social media involves communication, collaboration, and multi-media (92).
Miller High Life brand turned to its advertising agency (Saatchi & Saatchi) its internal PR team and Dig Communication to develop a multi-faceted integrated campaign that made High Life the toast of the Super Bowl reinforced its “common sense in a bottle” positioning and drove unprecedented sales growth during this key beer-selling occasion (120). In an interview with Richard Weiner, “The Practice of Public Relations,” he argues that that the top management of an organization will often contract help from an outside agency. Weiner, chief executive of Richard Weiner, Inc., a major public relations agency in New York city, contends that an outside agency is more likely to be proficient in media relations, and thus, more capable of attempting to achieve significant publicity in major media. Management is more likely to respect, and act on, the advice of an outside counselor as compared to their staff (270, 271).
The quantitative research led the Miller High Life Team to conduct a Segmentation research study to find more about the target audience; males (35-40) and their feelings about the economy, Super Bowl spending, media consumption habits, and interest/activities. They learned that a consistent theme arose among participants: Anxiety over the poor state of the economy (Hayes, Hendrix, Kumar, 121). The High Life PR team coordinated informal focus groups with key audiences, including Miller Brewing local market managers, beer distributors, consumers, retailers, media, and bar owners to find out more about opportunities and obstacles surrounding the Super Bowl, the retail world and beyond. Quantitative research yielded the fact that the Super Bowl is viewed by more than 100 million people, and 28 million of those viewers host Super Bowl parties, resulting in $11.7 being spent. The research equipped the team with valuable information that would envision a budget of $110,000 and a greater understanding of the opportunities and obstacles of Super Bowl advertisement (120). The Miller High Life Team rolled up their sleeves and began the research phase of their campaign. According to Robert T. Reilly, public relations depend on the information-gathering process. It requires facts, not intuition or assumptions. These facts must be at hand or knowledge of where to get them; to proceed without such data is both dangerous and unprofessional. It would be like building a house without a blueprint or planning a long trip without a map (Public Relations in Action, 40). Some facts are self-evident, such as the Super Bowl is THE number one marketing event of the year (Hayes, Hendrix, Kumar, 120). Also, one of the most interesting aspects of this phenomenon is that the commercials shown during the Super Bowl have also emerged as “must watch” TV as well. Another observation pointed out by Theresa Howard (USA Today), is that typically, the first commercial during Super Bowl is a about beer. One more important fact that can’t be overlooked – beer and sports go together like a hand in glove. This qualitative research satisfied Miller High Life enough to use the Super Bowl and capitalize on targeting their massive audience.
From here, the High Life team executed a comprehensive communications plan focused both on internal audiences (employees, retailer, and beer distributors) and external audiences (consumers and media). They took full advance of the newspapers, distributed a national social media new release, setup online interviews, online media kit, encouraged Super Bowl retail displays, scheduled interviews with Jay Leno of the Tonight Show, Good Morning America, Bonnie Hunt Show, and Fox and Friends.
Anheuser-Busch moved on to the next phase of the PR process by setting goals and objectives and implementing the plan to accomplish them. Their objectives were: (1) to generate extensive media coverage and build consumer buzz for Miller High Life; (2) Drive significant media coverage in the top 20 key High Life markets and create at least three national placements; (3), they wanted to help drive 2 percent sales growth for Miller High Life during the key Super Bowl selling period; and (4) finally, they set wanted to incorporate a viral, online component to expand the campaign’s reach,
With those four objectives, the Miller High Life team went to work to strategize working from the research, obstacles, opportunities, and objectives. They created a one-second ad that would air during the Super Bowl, purchasing airtime from individual NBC network affiliates in key markets. Hollis Thomases explains how Miller High Life was thinking ahead by launching a microsite: featuring a video clip of “rejected” one second ads, High Life 1-Second Ads That Didn’t Make the Cut that featured comedian Wendell Middlebrooks. You can’t do or say much in one second, but it was clever and got people’s attention. In the weeks leading up to the game, the site grew virally, mostly gaining its popularity through social networking. (375).
Much like another social media case, Doritos Crashes the Super Bowl, the overall target audience involved a super event. Although Miller High Life (beer) and Doritos (snack) did well to target the Super Bowl to advertise, their target audiences were not quite the same. The Doritos target consumer is between the ages of 16 and 24; whereas, Miller High Life targeted males between the ages of 30 and 45. As stated in Chapter Four of the textbook, understanding the target public for social media campaigns can be exceptionally challenging. The research source from this chapter that defines an element in the structure of this study is audience research. Practitioners must clearly identify the appropriate audience, and many times it is a micro-audience. As appropriate, slice the audience in terms of techno graphics, geo graphics, and demographics.
Another comparison between these two case studies is their unique use of the internet. The traditional skills of writing and media and communications knowledge will continue to be essential for the public relations practitioner in the twenty-first century, but added to them will be the necessity of understanding technology, of being proficient at negotiating the Net. Frazier P Sietel explains that the arrival and continued ascension of the Internet as a research engine and marketing tool has altered the career landscape for public relations professionals. The best practitioners in the new century will combine a working knowledge of traditional communications skills and new technological understanding and proficiency.
The textbook authors feature yet another case study. Categorized as an internal communications case study, is the employee relations Case 5-1, with Allstate Insurance Company. The Southeast Region created an Employee Engagement Committee (EEC) to improve employee engagement, to focus on driving a cultural shift through grassroots communication, and to increase positive responses on an employee engagement survey. As tactics, this committee introduced employee events including: community workdays, a regional library, Bring Your Child to Work Day, and Lunch and Learn sessions. The team was successful in leading an overall positive engagement shift and contributed to moving Southeast regional employees from second tier agreement levels (“agree”) to top line agreement (“strongly agree”) on engagement index question (139).
Unlike Case 4-3: Miller High Life and Case 4-1: Doritos Crashes the Super Bowl, this case study is classified as employee relations, but in actuality it is media relations. Although the cases differ greatly, the same four elements apply: research, objectives, programming and evaluation. According to Seitel, enhancing credibility, being candid and winning trust must be the primary employee communications objectives in the new century. Earning employee trust may result in more committed and productive employees. Five elements are key in any strategic program: survey employees’ attitudes regularly, be consistent, personalize communications and be candid.

This is one landmark Super Bowl commercial that stands out through time.