The Chosen One
Boundary Road Brewery
Issue 25 | December 2012
Agency
Barnes, Catmur & Friends
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Daniel Barnes, Paul Catmur Creatives: Brad Stratton, Jesse Stevens, Matt Weavers, Rob Longuet-Higgins Head of Art: Crispin Schuberth
Production Team
Finished Art: Alison Curtis Digital Project Manager: Greg Elisara
Other Credits
Account Director: Sally Willis Senior Account Manager: Katya Urlwin Account Manager: Nicholas Gallagher
Date
May 2011 onwards
Background
Craft beer is a hugely competitive area in New Zealand. Only the wine sector has more brands in the supermarket. The challenge was to name a product, design its packaging, launch it and nab 5% of the market in 12 months.
The budget wouldn’t stretch to TV so it was going to have to be the first beer ever to be launched successfully on the back of a digitally driven strategy.
Idea
Watching wine buyers, it was noticeable that when faced with an overwhelming choice, consumers would turn to a brand with which they had some sort of personal connection. For example: they’d visited the winery; they had met the winemaker personally; the bottle had a dog on the front and they liked dogs; etc.
The strategy, then, became about making personal connections between beer drinkers and Boundary Road Brewery.
To achieve this, drinkers were invited to help make all the decisions around the actual products they could buy. That way, when in the bottle shop or supermarket, and faced with a wall of choice, they would see a familiar friendly face with which they had a connection.
Billboards, print and online ads all drove consumers to a website where they could apply to be Beer Tasters and be sent 3 beers to try and vote on. The winning beer was then launched as part of a range.
Results
Six months after launch the BRB Craft Range was
- The single best selling craft beer SKU in NZ supermarkets.
- From nowhere to Number Two in the market. Now Number One.
- Selling three times over forecast.
Our Thoughts
When you use digital media, the creative brief has to change dramatically. From ‘Who do we want to talk to?’ and ‘What do we want to say?’ you have to ask ‘Who do we want to talk with?’ and ‘Why will they want to talk to us?’
A key question now is ‘What do we want them to do?’.
Come up with good answers to those three (plus a few others) and you’ll end up with a brilliant campaign like this.
It started a conversation and kept it going. When it began to go a bit pear-shaped with the vouchers, the brand team responded at once with the Beer Money idea and didn’t just save the day, they gave the whole initiative more oomph.
This campaign is how to do digital marketing properly. I think I’m right in saying it’s winning awards in New Zealand. Here’s hoping it does well elsewhere as well.