Every year, as more and more brands enter the music space, breaking through and genuinely connecting with fans becomes more and more difficult. There's a high risk of seeming inauthentic. In Canada this risk is very real, and nowhere more than in Quebec, where fans are known to be incredibly passionate about the music they love.

With a tight budget (less than $200K) and timeline (8 weeks), agency Anomaly set out to break the mould of traditional music sponsorships and give French Canadians a music experience they'd never forget.

To make it happen, the team found one of the bands that French Canadians are most fanatical about – legendary metal gods Metallica – and hosted a massive concert where we infused their music into Quebec's number one beer, Budweiser.

The province of Quebec has a very strong sense of provincial pride; they also remain one of Metallica's most loyal fan bases with the band selling out multiple stadium shows whenever they return. As the number-one beer brand in Quebec, Budweiser was able to partner with an act the size of Metallica, and through design the agency could create an authentic experience and product that fans could literally touch and taste.

The campaign objectives solely focused around breaking the traditional mould of music sponsorships to give French Canadians a music experience they'd never forget. The agency was tasked with creating a fully integrated French-only campaign that would (a) drive statistically significant brand growth in Quebec (Brand Health/Market Share) and (b) drive earned impressions.

Budweiser's recipe has remained stubbornly unchanged for 140 years. It occurred to the agency, however, that to be truly disruptive and make Budweiser and music synonymous we might have to tweak it.

Armed with the scientific truth that sonic vibrations affect matter at the molecular level, the idea was to literally infuse the music the fans love so much into their Budweiser. To make it happen, the team partnered with Metallica for a massive show to inaugurate the new Videotron Centre in Quebec City. Here, they harnessed Metallica's music and channelled the sonic vibrations directly into kegs that had been placed throughout the arena and encased in specially designed speaker arrays. The team also pumped music outside to a 48-foot Budweiser tanker clad with massive speakers.

The design of the packaging of "Budweiser Metallica Brew" was critical to the success of the program. The outer case kept the traditional Budweiser Red but also utilized Metallica's trademark logo along with a graphic lightning fork taken from the band's iconic Ride the Lightning Album. At shelf, the primary packaging remained recognizable as the Budweiser brand but also created excitement around the launch of the new Videotron Centre and Metallica and Budweiser's role in it.

Inside the case, the design of the can was a brand first: instead of red, the agency chose a striking black to recall Metallica's colours and as a reference to its incredibly popular black album. Once again the band's Metallica word mark was paired with the Budweiser bowtie and the graphic lightning fork, together forming a collectors piece worthy of the event.

The team unleashed the news of Metallica Brew to the masses using an integrated connections plan consisting of digital/social video, public relations, experiential and retail marketing.

The results were as fast as a Kirk Hammet guitar riff. With six weeks' worth of product being completely sold out in just three weeks from the first packaging arriving in stores. The campaign generated 46 million impressions with 100 stories globally. The brand saw market share grow 2.9 points in Quebec, and its saliency grew 97 points vs. the previous month.