Brief:

• Miller Lite worked with partner Vatom Labs on a mobile game called Great Taste Trivia as part its "Know Your Beer" campaign, according to a press release. The blockchain-based trivia game appears in apps, social channels and geotargeted media that reach mobile users in more than 230,000 bars and restaurants nationwide.
• Contestants enter the game by submitting their email address and affirming they're at least 21. The game challenges players to answer 12 trivia questions correctly in order to win one of 10,000 cash prizes of $5 each via PayPal. QR codes on posters and point-of-sale materials in bars also activate the game, which runs through September.
• Miller Lite relies on blockchain technology to support the game, social badges and rewards for viral sharing, and to ensure the $5 rewards can't be counterfeited. Vatom Labs uses SmartMedia software objects to track activations and engagements and to attribute rewards based on its analysis.

Insight:

Miller Lite's mobile trivia game is notable for leveraging blockchain, the digital ledger technology that powers digital coins like bitcoin and Ethereum, to authenticate and immediately reward winners with real cash prizes. Most applications of blockchain from marketers have been focused on back-end work on the digital media supply chain, but the beer brand is showing how the emerging technology can be used in tandem with other tactics like gamification and rewards-based systems.

Working with Vatom Labs on the blockchain game could help Miller Lite track activations and engagement, giving the brand more detailed data that can be used for future campaigns. Geolocation data are especially valuable to brands because they provide insights into real consumer behavior that are typically difficult to glean from voluntary surveys.

Miller Lite is providing a gamified experience that aims to reach mobile users in bars and restaurants, where trivia games have become a popular way to lure patrons and engage them in a more convivial activity. The game could help to reach young adults who rely on their smartphones to connect with friends and to share their experiences on social media. Alcohol brands such as Kahlúa, Skyy Vodka and Malibu, among others, have developed mobile campaigns aimed at prolonging brand exposure among those on-the-go consumers.

The trivia game is the latest installment of Miller Lite's "Know Your Beer" campaign that launched two years ago to highlight its ingredients and contrast them with Bud Light's, which has similarly put more marketing heft behind ingredient transparency. Young adults have tended to shun major beer brands that are seen as inauthentic, "uncool" or unhealthy, making an emphasis on beer ingredients more imperative for brewers.

The battle over ingredients this year became more contentious after Bud Light's parent company, AB InBev, ran a Super Bowl ad calling attention to MillerCoors' use of corn syrup in the beer-making process. The campaign resulted in an ongoing lawsuit between the two rivals.