The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2025
Coors Light records radio ads with announcers in ice water — El Ojo Radio Grand Prix
To prove Coors Light tastes best cold, Alma DDB read its radio spots in real ice — the shivers were the ad. It won the El Ojo 2025 Gran Ojo Radio.
Coors Light (Molson Coors)
What it had to solve
Coors Light's mountains turn blue when the beer is perfectly cold, but radio has no picture. The brand needed an audio campaign that made 'cold' tangible, so it challenged its announcers to actually do the freezing.
How it works
Coors Light's packaging is its thermometer: the mountains turn blue when the beer hits its ideal cold temperature. That cue works on a can, but radio has no picture — so Alma DDB asked how a radio spot could make 'cold' genuinely felt.
The answer was to stop acting: voice actors sat inside an ice-filled cylinder at 5.5°C (42°F) and read the scripts while actually freezing. The stutters, nervous laughter and chattering teeth that the cold produced became the ads themselves, launched April 2, 2025 on national audio-streaming platforms, with a backstage film showing the recording sessions on ESPN, Spotify and social media.
The campaign reached 84 million impressions with 100% positive sentiment, 87% brand mentions in headlines and 93% penetration of the key message. At El Ojo 2025 it took the Gran Ojo Radio & Audio plus two Silvers and was named Best Idea of El Ojo Local USA, and it was presented at FIAP 2025.
The idea worked because it refused to fake the product's core promise: instead of simulating cold with voice processing, the agency made the production itself cold, so the proof was baked into the performance.
Why it lands
- It made the production the proof: real freezing produced sounds no actor could convincingly imitate, so authenticity did the selling.
- It solved a medium-specific problem — radio has no visuals — by turning the recording process into the story and the making-of into shareable content.
- It extended the brand's existing cold-activated packaging cue into audio, building on a truth Coors Light already owned.
- The results were measurable: 84 million impressions and 100% positive sentiment showed a craft-driven stunt could outperform manufactured audio.
What it did
The campaign reached 84 million impressions with 100% positive sentiment, 87% brand mentions in headlines and 93% penetration of the key message; it won the El Ojo 2025 Gran Ojo Radio & Audio and was named Best Idea of El Ojo Local USA.
What you can take
When the product's core proof is sensory, make the medium carry it: recording in real ice gave the radio spot a truth no voice processing could fake — authenticity became the effect.
Since then
After the April 2025 launch, the making-of content extended the campaign's life on ESPN, Spotify and social platforms, and the work was shown at FIAP 2025. At El Ojo 2025 it won the Gran Ojo Radio & Audio, added two Silvers (Audio & Sound Production and Media), and was named Best Idea of El Ojo Local USA — establishing 'cold activated' as a repeatable brand idea for Coors Light's audio and social work.
Sources
- alma DDB convierte al frío en protagonista con Cold Activated Announcers para Coors Light
- Alma crea anuncios de Coors Light con locutores activados por el frío
- El Ojo 2025: Todos los trabajos ganadores
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