Budweiser, alongside gift-fulfilment and delivery company Gratafy (presumably pronounced gratify), has teamed up with Facebook to allow its users to take advantage of a new Bud Light Birthday promotion. Rather than send Facebook friends a virtual gift on Facebook, users can now use the social media site to send them an actual and physical real life Budweiser or Bud Light.
The promotion will be available on Tuesdays and work through a gift voucher system. Users will be able to purchase the beer voucher online through Facebook, stating who they would like to send it to. The voucher is then posted to that friend’s wall. Rather than having to print the voucher the recipient can simply show it directly to participating bars and off licences, straight from Facebook on their tablet or smartphone.
As the Budweiser pitch for the promotion attests, sending a Facebook gift for a birthday is nice enough but sending an actual beer is what really shows them you care. Or as they stated in a press release about the promotion:
“Beer is the original social network. This new campaign focuses not on a gift certificate or credit, but on bringing people together to celebrate life’s most anticipated moments.
“Whether you’re toasting your birthday, a job promotion, an engagement, or simply the end of a long work week, we want to encourage everyone to bridge the physical and digital worlds by allowing you to send your friend a beer over Facebook.”
Being able to share beer amongst friends in this way is the good news. The bad news is the promotion is only available in the US currently, and only Denver and Chicago at that. So either book yourself a trans-Atlantic flight or hold patiently for this or similar promotions to head to the UK in the future.