Community building projects help build beer brand values

by Marketing ON 23 March 2012

Campaign: Tooheys New Crew

Client: Lion

Agency: Momentum Worldwide

Background

Lion is a leading beverage and food company with a portfolio that includes many of Australia and New Zealand’s favourite brands. Under the category of beer, spirits and wine, Lion has: XXXX, Speight’s, Tooheys, Steinlager, Hahn, James Boag, Bacardi and Wither Hills. A significant brand in Lion’s suite of brands is Tooheys New.

Born in 1931, Tooheys New was a ‘new’ style of beer – a draught lager brewed for full flavour when served icy cold – a refreshing alternative to the warm English ales that were common at the time.

According to research by Nielsen in November 2011, Tooheys New is the fourth biggest beer brand in Australia. Despite the brand tracking incredibly well, however, it was evident that Tooheys New needed to improve the brand’s relevance among a new wave of beer consumers, and that there was a desire to reinforce its perceived popularity and raise its visibility.

To change how consumers perceived and felt about Tooheys New, Momentum developed the Tooheys New Crew – a campaign that supported its brand driver of creating genuine connections with its consumers and would move the relationship with Tooheys New beyond habit.

Objectives

Lion is a brand building company, focused on growing its strongest brands and markets. It recognises the importance of clearly differentiating and developing its brands, to excite and engage its consumers and grow returns for its customers. From its consumer insights results, Lion found that Tooheys New consumers are outgoing men who love everything their great Aussie suburban lifestyle has to offer, but felt that Tooheys New wasn’t connecting them to what matters most in their lives, which are their mates, family and communities.

Following these results, and in an overly competitive marketplace, Momentum was challenged to drive customer growth in Australia and to increase Tooheys New’s association with mateship, while preserving the Tooheys New adorer base.

The Tooheys New Crew would set out to bring to life the Tooheys New brand campaign, ‘The Beer Economy’ (a mate does you a favour and you say thanks with a beer – analysed in a previous case study by Marketing and available online at marketingmag.com. au in our Case Study section), developed by Saatchi and Saatchi Australia in February 2010.

Strategy

The Tooheys New Crew is a team of skilled tradies and good mates, headed by rugby league legend Paul ‘The Chief ’ Harragon and supported by New South Wales Origin Legends, who are travelling all over New South Wales completing favours in the form of building projects, at no cost to the local community.

A below the line communications campaign was implemented in the Crew’s inaugural year. Public relations and social media have been integral to the campaign, and used to drive engagement and awareness of the brand’s involvement across the projects and entire campaign.

The campaign has generated huge community involvement at a local level from workplaces, local sports clubs, and social and community groups, as well as mass awareness through media relations pre, during and post projects.

Social media was key to driving campaign awareness, with all project submissions driven online via the Tooheys New website and Facebook page – generating hundreds of submissions in its first year.

Now, with the Tooheys New Crew in its second year, to leverage the influence of the newly created adorers, the team will deploy above the line marketing activities across a number of marketing connection touch points.

Execution

The Tooheys New Crew campaign started in November 2010 as a oneyear campaign. Given its success, it was extended for a further year and has now been running for a total of 15 months. Residents in targeted towns nominate projects on the Tooheys New website or Facebook page, and then worthy projects are identified and announced.

Over a 12-month period, 16 projects were completed, which equated to the Crew completing a project every two to three weeks.

In the lead-up to and during each project period, the work the Crew is about to complete is publicised heavily in the local media. Media is integral to each project’s success, as it is important that the community know who the Crew is and why they will be in town, so they know how they can get involved. Aside from project stories

in local media, mainstream media opportunities are also considered throughout the year to generate positive coverage about the Crew, from sponsorship deals and appearances on The Footy Show, to a half-page spread in the sports section of The Daily Telegraph and a full-page story in in-flight magazine OUTthere.

Tooheys New funds the projects, and brings the Tooheys New Crew to town. Local sales representatives further engage the local communities by hosting pub shouts before the project is complete. The pub shouts give the town the opportunity to share a Tooheys New with the Crew, Paul Harragon and other New South Wales Origin Legends, and for the Crew to invite them on-site to lend a hand and celebrate the project’s completion the following day.

Results

The Tooheys New Crew campaign in its first year went above and beyond its year one objectives and drove considerable engagement with local communities that have supported the brand for the last 80 years.

The Crew completed 16 projects across New South Wales, which were valued at one million beers worth of favours, and over $1,660,000 worth in building projects.

Thousands of positive online conversations referenced the great work of the Tooheys New Crew and the positive community spirit the Crew coming to town generates. The Tooheys New Facebook community has increased likes by 4553 since the Tooheys New Crew campaign was launched.

The public relations campaign implemented by Momentum was extremely successful, generating more than 300 media articles and achieving over nine million in circulation.

Overall, the Tooheys New Crew campaign has generated 15% campaign awareness to date, and over 50% of the ‘touched’ group feel more positive towards the brand because of the Tooheys New Crew.

More than 2000 people have been engaged on a grassroots level directly and throughout on-site activities.

Often more than 100 local volunteers turn up to help at each project, and the Crew shown a generosity of spirit reaching far further into communities than what was imagined. This inspired the huge groundswell of volunteers at projects and made a lasting impact on participants.

As a result, millions of Australians view Tooheys New in a new light, seeing it as a brand that makes communities more sociable places.

Low-carb beer marketing a scam

by Marketing ON 8 December 2009

Low-carb beer advertising misleads consumers and marketing strategies that position these as healthy products are untrue, the Alcohol Policy Coalition has announced.

The Coalition has called on the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to push for factual alcohol labelling in response to what it refers to as ‘misleading health claims’ made by low-carb beer producers.

According to Craig Sinclair, director of Cancer Prevention Centre at the Cancer Council of Victoria, labelling has been on the COAG agenda since March 2008 and, with a rise in misleading health claims on alcohol products, the Council needs to stop dragging its feet.

“New marketing strategies, such as Coopers selling its beer as a ‘body nutrient’, are positioning beer as a healthy product and this is simply false advertising,” explained Sinclair.

“Current labelling standards that allow nutrition claims to be placed on alcohol products, such as ‘low carbohydrate’, do not account for the inherent harms associated with alcohol. This misleads consumers because it allows nutrition claims to be associated with products that are effectively empty of nutrients and overall, unhealthy,” said Sinclair.

Sinclair said recent research showed that consumers believe low-carb beer contributes to weight loss and is a healthier option than regular beer.

The Coalition believes that information about alcohol should be spelled out on the product packaging, including a complete list of ingredients and health information.

Dietitians Association of Australia spokesman Alan Barclay indicated
in 2008 that low-carb beer advertising was misleading because all beers
are low-carb anyway – what really matters is the kilojoule and alcohol
content.

This announcement comes after Coles released its own brand of low-carb beer into a market that is worth an estimated $600 million per year.

Coles goes blonde

by Marketing ON 2 December 2009

The full strength, low-carb beer market is set to heat up with Coles’ introduction of an in-house brand, Maxx Blonde.

On the verge of a newspaper advertising campaign, the Wesfarmers-owned supermarket chain will compete with big beer brand Foster’s Pure Blonde, along with Lion Nathan’s Boags Classic Blonde and Hahn Super Dry.

The Australian low-carb beer market is reportedly worth $600 million a year, with Pure Blonde being the first to market in 2004.

According to a Fairfax Media report, the chain denied its product was a copy of Pure Blonde, despite the similarities between the two products.

“It’s a very clever piece of brand leverage… Coles has by close association grafted the Pure Blonde brand values back into Maxx Blonde,” chief executive of advertising agency Lowe, Stephen Pearson, told Fairfax media.

Tooheys campaign offers musicians recording chance

by Marketing ON 11 November 2009

Lion Nathan has announced a new campaign for its brand Tooheys Extra Dry.

‘The Lab’ is offering an opportunity for an Australian music act to collaborate with a team of international recording artists to create the soundtrack for the brand’s next TVC.

Following a selection process, the winning band or solo artist will have the opportunity to fly to New York to collaborate with music producer Mark Ronson in New York, along with Nick Hodgson of Kaiser Chiefs, Sean Lennon, John Taylor of Duran Duran and members of the The Dap-Kings.

The final track written and produced in The Lab will feature as the soundtrack for the brand’s national advertising campaign, and the winner’s journey will be filmed for a documentary for release in March 2010.

According to marketing manager of Tooheys Extra Dry Josh Gaudry, The Lab concept was designed to maximise the brand’s engagement with the music industry.

“We’ve enjoyed great success over the years with our festival sponsorships and emerging artists programs such as uncharTED, but The Lab really takes that association to new heights,” explains Gaudry.

Peer Group Media, BMF Sydney, Holler Sydney, Zenith Optimedia and Momentum Worldwide have all been enlisted for the Tooheys Extra Dry brand’s campaign, whose history includes its infamous ‘Tongue’ TVC.

CUB unveils new VB campaign with slogan change

by Marketing ON 9 July 2009

VB has unveiled a new campaign entitled ‘The Regulars’, with a series of TVCs involving a parade celebrating quirky Australian stereotypes, abandoning its classic Hard earned thirst slogan for The drinking beer.

The beer brand focuses on ‘people we all know’ carrying banners including: ‘blokes punching above their weight’, ‘men who’ve had their arm in a cow’, ‘guys who peaked in high school’, ‘meat tray winners’, ‘guys who claim to have punched a shark’ and ‘the brewers’.

“At their heart, our new VB ads are about a beer at the pub with your mates but they’re brought to life in a way that is uniquely Australian. There are the classic VB trademarks but it’s definitely a new take – both from a creative and launch to market standpoint. This new campaign is another step forward for VB and will play an integral role in driving the brand’s future growth,” said Peter Sinclair, CUB marketing director.

Shot in Ballarat, the production required a cast of over 1500 and a 150-person crew making it one of the largest beer commercials Australia has produced. The cast involved CUB employees, people off the street and some cameos.

Celebrities who appeared in the TVCs include Michael Clarke, Wally Lewis, Paul De Gelder, Scott Cam, Molly Meldrum, Peter Russell Clarke, Dean Jones, Michael Klim, Billy Brownless and Greg Evans.

As well as the TVCs, the campaign sees the brand receiving refreshed packaging, outdoor, print, radio and point of sale promotion. Additionally, Carlton United Breweries (CUB) has launched the first dedicated VB brand site.

CUB said that VB is Australia’s favourite beer and the highest selling alcohol brand in the country, indicating that one in four regular beers bought is a VB.

Speaking about the campaigns creative, David Nobay, Droga5 creative chairman, said VB was the great leveller, making it a quintessential Aussie brand:

“It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do or wear, when you pick up VB you become a part of something authentic. Our creative challenge was to amplify that in a way that is equally authentic, Australian and real. The result is the ‘The Regulars’ and as a team it’s work we’re really proud of.”

VB to sponsor SBS 2009 Ashes coverage

by Marketing ON 24 March 2009

SBS has announced that beer brand VB will sponsor its coverage of the 2009 Ashes Test Series cricket between England and Australia.

The partnership spans the five Ashes Test Series matches taking place between July and August, as well as seven One Day Internationals in September.

“VB has been the beer of the Australian cricket team for the last 16 years and we’re delighted to extend this relationship within the SBS broadcast. This year’s Ashes is such an important and exciting series for both teams and we believe SBS will do an outstanding job in broadcasting it back home in prime time,” explains Paul Donaldson, group marketing manager VB.

SBS director of commercial affairs, Richard Finlayson, believes this it is a fantastic start to the free-to-air station’s Ashes activity and confirmation that SBS is a competitive sports broadcaster.

“We look forward to working with VB to help them fully leverage their partnership,” says Finlayson.

In 2005, the last occasion that SBS broadcast the Ashes, 10 million Australians in the five capital cities, and a further 4.5 million in regional areas, watched the network’s coverage.

Including the One Day Internationals, that reach represented 82% of Australian men aged 25-54, according to figures from SBS. The station’s 2009 coverage will be live and in high definition digital, with 10-minute highlights and a one-hour highlights program.

SBS’s cricket website (www.sbs.com.au/sport) will offer footage, news and additional features.

SBS expects to have keen viewer interest as Australia attempts to retain The Ashes after beating England 5-0 in 2006/7.

New Hahn Super Dry campaign for Lion Nathan

by Marketing ON 24 March 2009

Lion Nathan has unveiled its campaign for its premium low carb brand Hahn Super Dry, entitled ‘In the Spirit of Good Taste’.

The campaign features a TVC developed in partnership with BMF, with more executions to follow.

The tongue-in-cheek television executions use examples of particularly ‘bad taste’ to highlight the ‘great taste’ of Hahn Super Dry.

The campaign is based on the idea that how people define themselves is a constant work in progress: trying different things, clothes, perspectives – and even people – on for size.

“Hahn Super Dry is not only a great tasting beer – it’s a beer of great taste. This campaign calls on all Australians to let go of the things in their life that are no longer appropriate or acceptable and move on… in the spirit of good taste,” says Arno Lenior, Premium category director, Lion Nathan.

Hahn Super Dry is Lion Nathan’s largest premium low carb offering, and according to the company, the ‘In the Spirit of Good Taste’ creative aims to continue the irreverent Hahn brand personality and tone seen in previous campaigns for the trademark – including ‘Keep It Super’ and ‘Love Heart’ for Hahn Super Dry, and the award winning ‘Bean Bomb’ and ‘Spa Bomb’ for Hahn Premium Light.

“Aussies aren’t afraid to call a spade a spade when it comes to taste,
and the new ‘In the Spirit of Good Taste’ campaign shows that the great
taste of Hahn Super Dry gives them another opportunity to do just
that,” asserts Simon Langley, creative director of BMF.

New high-class brew: Carlsberg Vintage No.2

by Marketing ON 23 March 2009

Carlsberg’s Jacobsen Brew House in Copenhagen Denmark has introduced the second brew in its Vintage trilogy.

Vintage No.2 is one of the world’s most expensive beers, selling for €250 (AUD$494), and features controversial Chilean born artist Marco Evaristti, who designed the label. Vintage No.1 that launched a year ago, sparked interest worldwide due to it luxurious brand campaign.

Carlsberg says that Vintage No. 2 has been matured in J.C. Jacobsen’s original cellar from 1847 where it has been stored in French oak casks for 100 days.

The beer has a jet-black colour and espresso-like foam, revealing flavours of vanilla and cocoa/mocha. The brewer says it complements oysters, shellfish, Parma ham and cheese, and if you crave something sweet, it will also go with chocolate and crème brûlée.

“With the Vintage trilogy we want to push the boundaries for what a beer can do and to challenge the luxury wine segment in the gourmet restaurant market by utilising our innovation and brewing capabilities”, says Morten Ibsen, brewmaster at Jacobsen.

Peroni joins Aussie low-carb lager battle

by Marketing ON 6 March 2009

Italian beer brand Peroni Nastro Azzurro has announced the launch of an international premium low-carb lager.

Peroni Leggera launched globally in February, a spin off from the brand’s main offering Peroni Nastro Azzurro.

Australia will be the first market in the world to launch the lager, targeted at the 20- to 34-year-old premium beer drinkers demographic.

To celebrate the launch of Peroni Leggera, Roberto Cavalli, Birra Peroni’s chief brew master, will be in Sydney during the week of the product launch. Cavalli, who has been with Peroni since 1982, developed Peroni Leggera to create a lager that represents the quintessential Italian heritage.

“Peroni Leggera is like a flamboyant, Italian socialite – stylish in design and impressive in taste. Our commitment to the traditional brewing process and the most modern technologies ensures our consumers are delivered a first-class, premium beer, it is a lager that we at Peroni are immensely passionate about and proud of,” says Cavalli.

Fashion label Diesel has collaborated with artists Sophie Hoppe and Natalie Coulter to welcome the Italian designer beer alongside its own new collections.

The Paddington Diesel store and window display has been transformed into an art installation fusing the two Italian brands together and has been titled ‘Galleria Peroni’.

The artists spent over 15 hours creating the art installation, using 2200 bottles of Peroni Leggera in store. The display will feature in the Paddington store until 18 March.