The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2023
Molson Coors' Super Bowl return was an ad you could bet on — 250,000 took part
DraftKings ran two weeks of betting on every moment of Molson Coors' first Super Bowl ad in 30 years — 250,000+ entries made it its biggest non-sporting event.
Molson Coors
What it had to solve
Molson Coors was returning to the Super Bowl after 30 years with its two most iconic beers, Coors Light and Miller Lite, and wanted the return to cut through a game packed with ads.
How it works
Molson Coors had stayed out of the Super Bowl for 30 years. When it finally came back, it brought its two most iconic beers — Coors Light and Miller Lite — and looked for a way to make the return feel bigger than a normal commercial break.
The idea was to put the commercial itself on the betting board. For two weeks ahead of the game, DraftKings — a leading US sports-betting company — took bets on every part of the ad: what would happen, which brand would come out on top, how the story would play. The unreleased spot became a live odds market.
The anticipation worked: more than 250,000 entries poured in, making the campaign the biggest non-sporting event DraftKings had ever run and one of the most anticipated adverts of the Super Bowl.
Why it lands
- A return after 30 years gave Molson Coors a rare, dated moment of attention; betting gave that moment a reason to build for two weeks.
- Bets on the commercial made the audience co-authors of the hype instead of passive viewers of the film.
- DraftKings' platform converted the brand's media buy into an interactive game with a measurable participation target.
- The Coors Light and Miller Lite rivalry gave the betting board a natural story — two house brands competing inside one ad.
What it did
Over 250,000 entries came in, making the campaign the biggest non-sporting event in DraftKings' history and one of the most anticipated ads of the game.
What you can take
If your audience already loves predicting the outcome, let them bet on the ad itself: participation before the film runs turns a 30-second spot into two weeks of shared anticipation.
Since then
The High Stakes Beer Ad ran during the Super Bowl and entered D&AD's awards archive as a Digital Marketing case, where the mechanic of letting audiences wager on an unreleased commercial became a reference for pre-game engagement.
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