Consumers of all ages use Facebook to digitally connect with friends, and now consumers of legal drinking age can use the social media site to serve up some friendly fun in real life. Building off the idea that beer is the original social media, Anheuser-Busch partnered with Facebook to pilot its Bud Light Birthday and Buds for Buds online sales programs for users in the Chicago and Denver markets in early September. The company plans to expand the programs nationwide
next year.
Both programs use Facebook to display posts in users’ News Feeds to encourage them to gift a free birthday Bud Light to a friend or buy a Budweiser for a friend to celebrate another occasion. In both cases, recipients will be sent an online voucher, which they can redeem in person at a local bar or restaurant upon showing a state-issued ID to verify their age, the company says.