Newcastle Unveils Crowdsourced Super Bowl Ad

Newcastle has teamed up with 37 fellow brands for the world's first-ever crowdfunded Super Bowl ad spot.

The Newcastle "Band of Brands" spot, available now at NewcastleBandofBrands.com, follows Newcastle’s unsuccessful attempt to enter a snack chip maker’s crowdsourced Football Game Ad contest with a Newcastle beer ad disguised as a snack chip ad.

The concept was introduced with an online video featuring “Parks and Recreation” star Aubrey Plaza, calling for brands to join the project in exchange for a small contribution, preventing any one brand from having to blow their marketing budget.

“Our goal here is to make history and sell great beer,” said Priscilla Flores Dohnert, brand director for Newcastle Brown Ale, a brand of White Plains, N.Y.-based Heineken USA. “We weren’t going to let our tiny budget stand in the way of taking home the Big Game glory for the second year in a row.”

“Not only did we create the world’s first crowdfunded Big Game ad, but I’m pretty sure we just made the cheapest Big Game ad ever,” Dohnert said. “By asking other brands to team up with our brand we are making a statement that Big Game advertising should be accessible to everyone, whether they can afford it or not.”

The “Band of Brands” program was created by Newcastle in partnership with Droga5, Fast Horse and MediaVest, as part of Newcastle’s “No Bollocks” campaign.