![]() ![]() It’s the independent little scrappy brand, and everybody wants to support the little guy. It was spontaneous and honest and never fake. There was no marketing being shoved down people’s throats. The US was in a recession during 2007-2009, and the beauty of that was that Pabst didn’t have the budgets to advertise. What’s your sense of what made PBR attractive to those consumers in the first place? Pabst already had significant momentum before you joined the company in 2009. Nilsen talks about the rejection of the big beer brands and the ‘fake’ advertising that led to Pabst’s popularity amongst younger consumers during the recession and explains the localised strategy that provided deep respect and understanding of local people, cultures, and communities otherwise overlooked by ‘big beer’. Mark Barden talks to Nilsen to get a ‘behind the curtain’ understanding of the grassroots strategy at the heart of PBR’s long-term success and how it was implemented on the ground in local markets. Steve Nilsen AKA Stix spent nine years at Pabst as Lifestyle Marketing Manager: a successful tenure that saw the company sold for $250m in 2010 and then for a whopping $700m to American entrepreneur Eugene Kashper just four years later. Much has been written about the early team’s initial approach and success and many people have worked hard to continue the word-of-mouth approach ever since, resisting the temptation to big up the brand using conventional beer marketing techniques. ![]() It skyrocketed from selling less than 1m gallons in 2001 to topping 92m gallons in 2012. Pabst Blue Ribbon’s early-2000s revival is a phenomenal success story. ![]()
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