SITUATION
Estrella Jalisco was drowning in a saturated light beer market with no real differentiation. Consumer research surfaced something interesting - among Mexican American consumers, Estrella was already the go-to beer for making Micheladas at home. Micheladas, aka the beer cocktails, are customizable to suit individual tasters' preferences and moods. It was a cultural ritual. The brand owned this in consumer behavior. It just didn't own it in the market.
Estrella Jalisco was drowning in a saturated light beer market with no real differentiation. Consumer research surfaced something interesting - among Mexican American consumers, Estrella was already the go-to beer for making Micheladas at home. Micheladas, aka the beer cocktails, are customizable to suit individual tasters' preferences and moods. It was a cultural ritual. The brand owned this in consumer behavior. It just didn't own it in the market.
TASK
Repositioned Estrella Jalisco from a generic light beer to the Michelada beer, validating positioning before committing to an RTD product. Take the validated positioning from social proof to shelf with two new SKUs and a cultural calendar of activations.
ACTION
We started on social. Repositioned Estrella as the Michelada beer through visual repositioning, recipes, and DIY content, using engagement as a real-time market signal to validate the positioning before any dollars were committed.
We also built a cultural activation calendar around it. For eg, Michelada Day was a one-day live commerce event (tied to DoorDash). Every hour, followers voted on ingredient combinations through social channels. A respected local mixologist then created a new Michelada on IG live using the winning ingredients at the top of the next hour. Viewers could swipe up directly from the content to add those exact ingredients to their cart for same-hour delivery, collapsing the distance between inspiration and purchase to under 60 minutes. Audiences came back every two hours to watch the next recipe unfold, creating natural repeat engagement loops throughout the day. The success of Michelada Day led directly to a follow-up activation for Day of the Dead, extending the platform into a second cultural moment.
Once social validated positioning, we moved to product: launched Mango Michelada and Spicy Piña Michelada as two new SKUs. Both activations kept the brand rooted in Mexican American cultural moments, while differentiating the brand as a Michelada beer.
RESULT
150% increase in brand sales from the Michelada Day activation alone. +47% YoY revenue growth, +60% YTD at launch across the Estrella portfolio. The Michelada positioning took on a life beyond the original SKUs, lifting the main beer and RTD products simultaneously. AB InBev went on to launch another Michelada variant with Sofia Reyes, using the same positioning foundation.
150% increase in brand sales from the Michelada Day activation alone. +47% YoY revenue growth, +60% YTD at launch across the Estrella portfolio. The Michelada positioning took on a life beyond the original SKUs, lifting the main beer and RTD products simultaneously. AB InBev went on to launch another Michelada variant with Sofia Reyes, using the same positioning foundation.
