Anheuser-Busch is out with a new, zero-carb beer ahead of Super Bowl LVI, dubbed Bud Light NEXT, along with the brand’s first-ever non-fungible token (NFT) project.
After a decade in the making, the ‘super crisp’ light beer is hitting shelves on February 7th, 2022. The new brew was specifically created for a subset of upwardly-mobile consumers over 21, who are “breaking barriers, being trailblazers and setting their own path.”
Andy Goeler, Bud Light’s VP of marketing, told Yahoo Finance the company believes this generation of consumers will “gravitate” toward this new offering thanks to its “drinkable, sessionable” nature.
He believes this generation wants to “distinguish themselves from past generations by choosing” what is relevant for them and does not want “to be weighed down… they want to be open for possibilities,” Goeler noted.
“It’s a very different consumer mentality,” he said, giving a nod to technology advances that helped bring the new brew to life.
“There’s been enough advancements in brewing technology here that it just recently really enabled us to do this… it really is…the impossible beer…a zero carb beer,” the executive said.
The beer boasts “stats” similar to that of hard seltzers, a space that continues to gain attention and traction from consumers, with 80 calories and 4 percent alcohol. According to Goeler, the team wanted to be sure the stats were still in the area of the Bud Light beer and seltzers, which are all in the range of 4-5 percent ABV level.
A traditional Bud Light typically includes 110 calories, and six grams of carbs per beer, while lager brews typically have 10-13 grams of carbs.
To celebrate the launch of the new offering, Bud Light is releasing its first ever NFT project called “Bud Light N3XT Collection.”
Beginning February 6th, Bud Light Next NFTs will be available for consumers, ages 21 years and older, for $399 per token. The collection will feature 12,722 unique tokens, nodding to the day of the drink’s launch on January 27th, and will be feature color cues from the Bud Light Next design.
Corey Brown, Bud Light’s senior digital director, says the NFT space is “exploding” — as seen with Anheuser-Busch’s other brands that dabbled in the space, including Stella Artois last summer and Budweiser Royalty, which sold out.
He noted this was a synergy the company couldn’t pass up with the drop of the “next” generation of beer.
“NFT’s are revolutionizing and redefining how we think about creativity and technology ownership communities…we are quite literally redefining the beer and light beer categories simultaneously,” he told Yahoo Finance.
For customers that are able to score a token, they will be able to vote on Bud Light NEXT merchandise and gain access to Bud Light NEXT brand and partner events, among “other surprises.” And this may just be the beginning of many similar launches this year, Brown told Yahoo Finance.
“We have a pretty strong history of being innovative this time of year.. being very culturally relevant this time of year…you can probably anticipate some big things to come in the next couple of weeks and months from us,” he added.