Here’s why Budweiser chose Siddhant Chaturvedi to be the face of its ‘Made Over Nights’ campaign

• Earlier this month, Budweiser 0.0 rolled out a campaign titled 'Made Over Nights' featuring actor Siddhant Chaturvedi, showcasing how his hard work and passion have defined his journey so far.
• We speak to Vineet Sharma, Vice President Marketing - South Asia, AB InBev and Siddhant Chaturvedi about the ‘Made Over Nights’ campaign.

Budweiser’s recent campaign aims to remind the audience that success takes its own sweet time and that kings are not made overnight. It celebrates the path to success which is marked by persistence, hard work, determination, and an indomitable spirit, not crushed by failures.

So, for this campaign, Vineet Sharma, Vice President Marketing - South Asia, AB InBev said that Siddhant Chaturvedi was the perfect option. The campaign takes the audience back to the days when Bollywood actor Siddhant had just started auditioning, and takes us parallelly to him practicing his award-acceptance speech today. He thanks his mom, buds, landlady, cat, ex-girlfriend, spot boy, and everyone who showed up to encourage and support him through his journey. The film then re-establishes the prime narrative on how kings aren’t made overnight, they’re Made Over Nights.

Telling us why the brand chose Siddhant to be the face of the campaign, Sharma said, “Made Over Nights is a tribute to everyone out there who's working to make their own dreams come true. Our core product insight while making this campaign was that our journey of the beer also takes twice as long as compared to any other ordinary beer -- which showcases that a great product needs time and effort to truly become iconic, and the same is true for all the folks out there who are hustling day and night. Made Over Nights is a representation of one such story which is of Siddhant Chaturvedi. He is a Bollywood youth icon and this is a very emotionally inspiring journey we have. He brings alive the right passion, culture and energy. His journey resonates well with our brand.”

“How overwhelming has your overnight success been?” Siddhant is often asked by his fans but he says this is hardly true. He says that the Bollywood industry demands perfection and he has spent extended nights refining his skills, “constantly pushing to look beyond failures in the pursuit of delivering the finest.”

So, he was thrilled when Budweiser approached him with an idea to share his struggles and success story with the world. “I've been following Budweiser; they always collaborate with upcoming artists all around the world. Lionel Messi, Houston were a part of it and these are the people who’ve inspired me in my own journey. So, when the conversation started with Budweiser, I was very excited to hop on. The fact that they chose me, made me feel like I have done something great in life. It is a validation of sorts. It made me feel that I have that potential, that I am upcoming.”

After Gully boy, Indian brands rushed to rope in Siddhant. He has worked with Gordon India, Skechers, Lay’s, Ustraa, to mention a few. When asked how he chooses his brands, he said, “I don’t think I am in a position to select my brands right now. The brands select me; they see something in me which aligns with their campaign and their ideology.”

In the age of social media, Millennial and Gen Z actors have an inherent advantage and are considered to have a relatively higher social media quotient. As a creator that caters to GenZ, with 2.2 million followers on Instagram and 40.1k million followers on Twitter, Siddhant has become a coveted option for brands. The young star has won many hearts with his films so far. He believes in a simple mantra, “Hustle Se Haasil” and that hard work pays off.

With his latest campaign with Budweiser, Siddhant said he wants to inspire the younger generation to pursue their dreams, overcome challenges and find their own ground.

Without revealing the budget for this campaign with Siddhant, Budweiser’s Sharma said that it is ‘massive.’ “The campaigns spends are quite massive because we see this as a year of recovery. Our commitment to India is strengthening year-on-year, Budweiser is the lead brand in our portfolio and it has a lot of brand love amongst the audience. That’s why our investments in this will be quite big-ticket during the summer. This is also the year where we believe consumer confidence is also high; they are much more open to hearing brand conversations and I believe we have the right message for them. While our investments were muted in the past two years, we are coming back at the right time. Summer is at its peak and I believe we will be putting quite a ‘bomb’ with this campaign.”

Sharma has a big-scale media plan in mind for this campaign; it will be live across digital channels, television, print and will also be seen on digital billboards. It will be followed by an influencer marketing campaign with a similar set of brand advocates.