VB Tea
CUB
Issue 53 | January 2020
Agency
Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Creative Team
Creative Chairman: James McGrath Chief Creative Officer: Stephen de Wolf Executive Creative Director: Evan Roberts Creative team: Carlo Mazzarella and Ray Ali Creative team: Alex Metson and Tim Bishop
Production Team
Executive Producer: Sonia von Bibra Senior Agency Producer: Lisa Moro Head of Print Production: Nicholas Short Editor: Sam Coates COP/Cinematographer: Chas Mackinnon (Betty Wants In) Photographer: Chas Mackinnon (Betty Wants In) Sound Engineer: Ramsay Demarco (Squeak E. Clean Studios Melbourne)
Other Credits
Head of PR: Nick Zonnios Senior Account Manager PR: Sophie Truter Tea Producer: Benjamin Kelly (Somage Fine Foods Australia) Planning Director: Brigitte Bayard General Manager: Jonny Berger Account Manager: James Kerr Client: Carlton & United Breweries Head of Classic Brands: Chris Maxwell Associate Director – VB: Hugh Jellie Assistant Brand Manager – VB: Emma Turner
Date
July - September 2019
Background
For years, iconic Australian beer brand, Victoria Bitter, was a major sponsor of the Australian cricket team, with the brand being synonymous with the team and its appearances at the Ashes series’ over the years. Three years ago, one of VB’s arch-rivals (XXXX Gold) took up the sponsorship of the Australian men’s cricket team. With an Ashes series being set to be played out in England, the challenge was to find a way to steal an unfair share of the conversation from their rivals and get VB back in to the cricket conversation without actually having a sponsorship.
Idea
With the 2019 Ashes series being played in the UK, they knew cricket fans would be staying up into the wee hours of the morning cheering on the Aussies as they took on the English.
What is normally a beer occasion was really more of a tea moment. So they created exactly that – VB Tea.
Working with Australian tea maker, Somage Fine Foods, Black Ceylon tea and VB’s very own Super Pride Hops were combined to create a full flavoured tea rich with character. The mellow tannins of the black tea complemented the earthy bitter tones of the hops, delivering a patriotic cuppa worth of the green and gold.
They were then conveniently packaged into boxes of 24, replicating a case of beer, and put up for sale on VB’s own merch store. Thus, VB Tea was born.
To promote their new brew, a series of online videos were created that were a play on the brands’ famous Rhyming Couplet scripts – directing consumers to their merch store to buy their own box.
And they did – the tea was so popular, it sold out in 24 hours, largely in part to a PR campaign that generated coverage in nearly every major news outlet across the country. To round out the campaign, they partnered with the Steve Waugh foundation to auction off The Final XI boxes during the last test of the series. With one of the boxes being sold for over $400AUD and all of the proceeds going to charity.
Results
4.5 boxes were sold per minute 21,000 website visits (92% new customers) Total online store revenue = $32,000 in 24hrs Story was picked up in: Germany, Ireland, S.Korea, NZ, Turkey, UK and USA.
12.7m+impressions 153 pieces of TV coverage alone Generating $1.2m in equivalent advertising value from a budget of approx. $150k AUD. Their low-budget campaign effectively hijacked a key competitors multi-million-dollar sponsorship and thrust VB back into the spotlight at a time when it had no right to play.