Miller Lite’s new social media strategy: “unfollow us”

They'll even offer you a free beer if you unfollow them on social media. The campaign kicked off on October 22 with a TV spot on game one of the World Series and is aimed at getting people to take a break from social media and basically go outside and be with real people. Miller has said that its social media accounts will “go dark” for two weeks as part of the effort. And they mean it. Their Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts show nothing but an image of a black Miller can over a black background. No description. Just a link to the Unfollow Miller Lite page. Looks like they’re serious.

To get your free beer, Miller’s asking that you simply take a screen shot of you unfollowing either their Instagram or Facebook accounts, text that photo to them, they’ll send you a link, which you then use to upload a receipt for a beer purchase and then they’ll wire you up to $8 through Paypal. They’re offering the promo to up to 118K people, which was the number of Instagram followers they had at the start of the campaign. 

A risky strategy, you say? It’s actually playing pretty well for Miller.  So far, the campaign has earned more than 620 million PR impressions and counting, well ahead of the brand’s goal, with 97% positive or neutral sentiment. Funny enough, they’re up to 123K followers as of this writing, a week and a half later. For a brand so down on social media, I’d say the whole thing has a pretty strong social component. They’re clearly pulling influencers into the deal. With a search of #itsmillertime, you’ll get plenty of this:

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My face is an actual representation of how excited I am to go dark on social media for 24 hours. I’m all about authentic conversations and making people laugh in-person! So grab a @MillerLite for you and your friend and take 24 hours to enjoy life! #itsmillertime #ad

A post shared by Demi Burnett (@demi_not_lovato) on Oct 22, 2019 at 2:58pm PDT