More PR Karma for Pabst
You’ve probably heard the news that Pabst Brewing Company is for sale. It’s actually been for sale for about 10 years now, but this time it sounds like Uncle Sam is serious about them having to sell.
But this potentially awkward story has turned into a beautiful word-of-mouth opportunity for the company. And the best part is that they’re not even doing anything to facilitate this – at least that’s visible to me.
A couple ad agencies, namely Forza Migliozzi have launched a website called buyabeercompany.com and are accepting fake donations to round-up the $300 million the experts expect to be the selling price.
People can “pledge” money to the account and the website will keep a running tally of how much “the people” have pulled together to buy the company.
This seems to keep happening for Pabst? Going back to my time with the company, we seemed to get a boost of organic PR every couple of months. Remember the PBR fraternity at Oregon State? What about the PBR casket? Why does Pabst get so much organic PR?
I call it PR karma… when it comes to publicity, you make your own luck. The modern day PBR (and consequently, Pabst Brewing Company) is a brand that’s built on word-of-mouth marketing, which in turn, is street cred. Consumers flat-out love the brand and are attracted to interact with it. The results are interesting stories that are created by real people – and that’s the best kind isn’t it?
