US: Anheuser-Busch InBev launches Budweiser 'tracker' campaign

Anheuser-Busch InBev's has announced a 'Track Your Bud' campaign as its latest effort to reinvigorate consumer interest in Budweiser in the US.

As part of the campaign, consumers will be encouraged to use their smartphones on QR codes on bottles of Budweiser. They will then be shown how their beer has been produced and delivered to them. 

The move comes amid growing consumer interest in craft beers in the US, at the same time as ongoing decline for mainstream brands. A-B InBev will not release its full-year figures until 8 March, but MillerCoors has already highlighted that its Coors Light brand overtook Budweiser as the second biggest selling beer brand in the US in 2011.

A-B InBev said this week that "Track Your Bud" content will provide beer drinkers with visibility into the source and selection of ingredients, Budweiser's seven-step brewing process, when their beer began Beechwood aging and which brewmaster tasted it multiple times throughout its brew cycle. "Budweiser has a great story, and we want to tell it in a new way," said Rob McCarthy, VP for Budweiser.

'Track Your Bud' content will be available on iTunes and Facebook, A-B InBev said. Users also will be able to access video content, collect badges from each US brewery and name batches of beer if they're the first to track a beer from that particular batch, it said.