Bud Light Living Line

CreatID recently became the latest in a long line of small Portland companies to make a large splash in the marketing world with its contribution to the Bud Light Living Line campaign. The end result is a unique product that exhibits CreatID’s CAD rendering and manufacturing abilities.

CHALLENGE

Anomaly Marketing was tasked with developing a splashy campaign for Bud Light Canada that would be promoted via social media. CreatID was hired by Uncorked Studios to handle the product design and manufacturing portion of the campaign and manufacture 25 working units within 3 ½ months.

“This project was a very big deal for us,” said CreatID Principal Dennis Veatch, “not only because of the national and international implications, but because of the project demands and what we were able to accomplish. It was a high bar, to say the least.”

SOLUTION

Anomaly’s idea for the campaign was the Bud Light Living Line. The Line comes in the form of a dynamic phone delivered at random to unsuspecting patrons at various bars and clubs. When they answer, the phone message opens the door to a series of outrageous events for the lucky person and five friends. Those who receive the calls are invited to parties, concerts, and sporting events in Las Vegas, New York, Whistler, and elsewhere.

CreatID consulted the team from Anomaly and Uncorked to define the initial project scope, develop the concepts, set the performance parameters, and then proceeded to design and engineer the product.

CreatID’s scope of work included designing the phone element and experience. Along with Anomaly and Uncorked, CreatID crafted the user experience that the phone would provide, based on the timeline, design, and mechanical considerations of the product.

Performance requirements were established utilizing efficient, in-meeting, storyboard cartoon-style sketch work to walk through the experience of the phone recipient with the team. CreatID then moved into conceptual development—producing a series of sketches, then creating models with in-house CAD rendering abilities before manufacturing several full-size 3D-printed models for discussion.

CreatID headed this effort, communicating with all stakeholders to present a solution for consensus. The project progressed through a series of mock-ups, feedback sessions and revisions to get a design lock. This was followed by production of a CAD rendered performance video to illustrate lighting, sound, and motion.

Finally, for manufacturing the 25 phones requested by the client, CreatID sourced and managed an extensive network of local vendors including:

Sherpa Design
Phyzika Technologies
RapidMade
Kent Plastics
First Cut
I Can Do It

The finished Bud Light Living Line phone mimics the look of an industrial cryogenic chamber that illuminates and slowly opens when activated. The recipients of the device experience the light and sound of the phone ringing and rising to meet them.

“From the initial meeting until the actual delivery, we had only three and a half months to complete the project, so it was a mad rush to the finish line,” Veatch said. “We set up a short-run assembly line and built sub-assemblies as the first parts arrived. We also tested instructions and protocols and trained a small team of assembly technicians.”