Campaign: You know who you are

Client:Coopers

Agency:Colman Rasic

Background

Coopers has brewed quality Australian beer since 1862. It is one of Australia’s most loved beer brands. The brewery today is run by the fifth generation of the family.

In late 2009, Coopers created Coopers 62 Pilsner, a European-style beer with a crisp, full favour and smooth finish. It was Coopers’ first pilsner and was about to be launched into a very crowded premium beer market, dominated by imported beers.

The beer looked and tasted different to anything Coopers had created before. The challenge was to give it a unique and individual personality relevant to the younger target audience, while staying true to the overall Coopers brand.

The design of the bottle, with no belly wrap and an embossed 62, was chosen to communicate a stylish, premium and contemporary product. There was also a desire to create some mystery around the ‘62’ part of the brand name.

Objectives

The creative concept needed to achieve the following:

§  convey the idea of Coopers 62 Pilsner as both the contemporary and casually sophisticated member of the Cooper family

§  respect the general values instilled in the Coopers brand by the loyalists

§  reinforce the strong product traits of Coopers 62 (premium, Coopers pedigree, no additives/preservatives)

§  create a tagline that could be utilised universally across all creative collateral, including all above the line and below the line media

§  develop an idea that allows users to become part of the brand and influence its personality, and

§  the primary objective was to celebrate the fact that this is a Coopers product that is made for those who love the brand, but may find the traditional Coopers ales strong in palate or harder to tackle – it reaches out to a new market, while keeping within the Coopers brand parameters.

Strategy

While most beer drinkers tend to make a consumption choice based on brand image, drinkers of Coopers generally don’t conform to a defined mould. So, as the premium pilsner of the Coopers family, 62 needed to target discerning drinkers who are confident and comfortable with who they are.

It became clear that our target audience weren’t likely to respond well to ads that tell them who they are, because they don’t like to think of themselves as being defined by brands – they feel they already know who they are.

As the beer looked and tasted different to anything Coopers had ever created before, this led to the creative strategy, the ‘Perfectly Individual Pilsner’.

Being perfectly individual, we didn’t want to give Coopers 62 a predefined personality. So, instead of producing advertising that reflected the audience, we let the audience define the advertising.

The campaign idea was born and became known as ‘You know who you are’. The genetic profiles of Coopers 62 pilsner drinkers would be used to form the foundation of our advertising across all media channels.

 

Execution

At the launch phase, we sent out exclusive Coopers 62 launch party invitation packs, together with medical grade swab kits. Guests were asked to submit a real swab of their saliva.

The swabs were sent to a genetic lab for analysis and the genetic profile of the launch party guests was turned into a visual representation of their real DNA. This literally became DNA art.

Because each art print was based on real DNA, every single one was different and unique to the individual.

The genetic profile of Coopers 62 drinkers became the basis of the advertising campaign. And, because the genetic profile was unique to one person, only that person knew who they were.

The DNA art of Coopers 62 drinkers formed a national campaign consisting of outdoor posters, web banners, magazine ads, point of sale material, television ads within bars and clubs, and an integral website.

A print of the DNA artwork was also sent to people who submitted their swab, so they had a permanent record of their genetic profile. Only they could match their profile to the advertising.

A URL on the ads directed the wider public to the Coopers 62 website, which was built in Flash and Papervision. The website greeted people with a large rotating wall of existing user profiles, which could be navigated and explored.

Users were given the option to learn about DNA art and to create their very own profile.

Through a series of simple, personal questions and with the help of an algorithm, users were able to create a digital version of their profile, which was visible, yet anonymous to others.

The unique profile was then added to an ever-growing wall of other anonymous profiles. The wall of profiles joined together to form an individual master profile of the Coopers 62 beer itself. Users could download their profile, email it to themselves or send it to their mobile phone.

The unique profile then became an exclusive pass to events and promotions. It also gave people the chance to see their own profile appear in forthcoming ads.

A mobile specific site was also created, allowing people to create and store their profile image on their phones, which allowed immediate access to events and promotions.

Events and promotions were announced on the Coopers 62 site and through social media.

 

Results

To date, over 7000 Australians have spent the time to create their very own unique profile, and have in turn contributed a bit of themselves to the overall Coopers 62 brand. The website has now received over 43,000 unique visitors, and nearly 20 percent of those have been motivated to create a profile. On 12 February 2010, the Coopers 62 website picked up an FWA (Favourite Website Awards) ‘site of the day’ award.

The sales of Coopers 62 Pilsner have exceeded all expectations. Currently, it is selling twice the quantity of Coopers’ mainstream lager, called Coopers Premium Lager, which is an established product and is priced in a market with greater volume share and potential. Coopers 62 is now ranked the number one premium packaged product outside the Coopers Ale range, and ranked number four packaged product in the entire Coopers portfolio.

Trade acceptance has been equally impressive. Within the Coles Group, Coopers 62 is contributing six percent of volume to the total Coopers volume, which is twice what was initially forecast for this product (Aztec, Coles Group March 2010).

Against direct competitors, Boags Pure (0.8 cases per store per week) and Steinlager Pure (0.8 per store per week), Coopers 62 delivered 0.7 cases per store per week, which is fantastic, considering 62 is the fresh-faced competitor in the market, and that other brands were launched with multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns.

Overall, the grocery channel is now pulling through approximately 1000 cases of Coopers 62 Pilsner per week.

The positive results seen here demonstrate that by understanding the audience and their own individuality, we have fostered in them a feeling of solidarity with the unique and self-assured Coopers 62 product. Through building the foundations of the campaign around the genetic make-up of Coopers 62 fans, we have activated in them a sense of being an intrinsic part of both the advertising and the Coopers 62 genetic profile.

Our slick and effective web portal galvanised users on multiple platforms into creating their own online profile, further enhancing the product’s discerning image and allowing them to become a part of a product they enjoy.

‘You know who you are’ has become a truly individual campaign in the cluttered and competitive world of beer advertising.