Brains & Brews: The Beers Whose Fans Most Love ‘The Walking Dead’

Brains & Brews: The Beers Whose Fans Most Love ‘The Walking Dead’

This time around we’re applying the StatSocial audience analysis tool to mythology, media, and libations about which we all can be excited. Simply, this entry demonstrates the power of StatSocial — for marketers and media sellers alike — to pair brands with the advertising avenues that will be most fruitful.

As with all entries in our StatSocial blog , the data provided here only provides a mere taste of our full audience insight capabilities.

All Well and Good, But I Was Told There’d Be Zombies

AMC ’s long-running zombie-apocalypse-a-palooza, ‘ The Walking Dead ,’ returned to TV screens on February 10 to commence with the run of episodes that will complete its 9th season ( season 9 - part 1 ran last fall, taking a break at the end of November). The network announced this month that the program will be returning, apparently during this upcoming autumn, for its 10th season.

As is the case with anything that has passionate fans, particularly if that thing is in some way associated with “ genre entertainment, ” opinion is divided as to whether or not the show is still good. The author of this entry has never seen an episode, so I’m going to go ahead and say that it is. In fact, it’s the best it’s ever been.

I have seen all of George Romero’s ‘ Dead ’ movies, the first three of which are masterpieces (and the last bunch of which were terrible, but whatever). I’ve seen Lucio Fulci’s ‘ Zombie ’ many times, and I always enjoy it. In it, a zombie wrestles a shark. I know there have been ‘ Walking Dead ’ spinoffs, haven’t there? Have they done ‘ The Swimming Dead ’ yet? I don’t feel like navigating away from this entry to Google it, so I’m going to assume no.

So, ‘ Zombie ’ remains the ‘ Citizen Kane ’ of movies wherein the living dead wrestle sharks. You can’t beat that with a stick. In fact, we’d strenuously caution against beating either a shark or a zombie with a stick should the occasion to do either arise.

We’re Only Here for the Beer

All of the films mentioned above, as well as the 9 1/2 (and change) seasons of ‘ The Walking Dead ’ that have thus far aired are, for a great many people, all the more enjoyable when there are delicious, cold brewskis on hand. Zombies pair with beer nearly as well as pizza does (that some zombies resemble pizza is purely a coincidence, and best not contemplated).

For your consideration, your entertainment, and your EDUtainment, we provide you the below graphic. Not graphic in the NSFW sense that some of ‘ The Walking Dead ’’s more (presumably, having never seen it) grisly sequences are, but graphic in the sense that it’s a visual bit of business. An INFORMATIVE one.

We analyzed the fans of this undead king of AMC ’s programming mountain, going through the thousands and thousands who are beer drinkers. From there we calculated which beer brands found the most pronounced favor among the hops aficionado segment of ‘ The Walking Dead ’’s most faithful viewers.

Using 100 as our baseline, meaning the degree to which each beer can find admirers among the average audience, we calculated which beers found drinkers among viewers of ‘ The Walking Dead ’ in quantities exceeding the average.

In other words, MillerCoors ’ Redd’s Apple Ale — which by glancing below you’ll see tops the list — finds admirers among ‘ The Walking Dead ’’s fans to a degree exceeding the baseline by .4102 times.

As cited above, consumers of MillerCoors ’ Redd’s Apple Ale are most prominent here. The sound of cool, refreshing Redd’s Apple Ales being cracked open can be heard every Sunday in living rooms across America.

There are, as you can see, many other beer fans sitting intently in front of AMC, hoping to learn the fate of their favorite characters… Or zombies. Are the zombies characters? In Romero’s ‘ Day of the Dead ’ there’s a domesticated zombie named Bub. He provides the tiniest sliver of comic relief in what’s otherwise a nearly unbearably tense and grim film.

BUT THAT’S NO ‘ THE WALKING DEAD ,’ NOW IS IT? I just Googled some things, learned some spoilers. But there’s no Bub analog, don’t you worry.

Where was I, oh YES! Leinenkugel’s , the MillerCoors owned, Wisconsin-based brand, is the second most profoundly over-indexed beer on this list. The brand’s index score of 139.39 means that drinkers of this classic American pilsner can be found among the ‘ The Walking Dead ’’s viewership to a degree exceeding the average by .3939 times. It may seem slight, but when dealing with large numbers, it is meaningful.

Pabst drinkers also have that zombie hunger. By which we mean that — along with their appetite for delicious beer — they crave media featuring zombies, not that they crave brains. Their index score of 138.96 means drinkers of that classic brew can be found among ‘ The Walking Dead ’’s viewers to a degree in excess of the average by .3896 times (or, . 39 times).

The rest of the list is there for the looking. It contains insights galore, and we are certain that the good people at AMC , as well as any of the beer manufacturers affiliated with the brands listed above, will find it all a quite compelling read.

Take a Sniff Around

Insights on top of insights can be found by the curious reader who chooses to poke around the StatSocial blog here . Peruse the many entries, offering all kinds of insights, studies, and deep dives to better acquaint you with the capabilities of StatSocial .

Throughout the blog are many examples of the sorts of insights that can only be gained with StatSocial .

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