HAHN ULTRA – Silver Effie 2017 from Ken Buchan on Vimeo.
My first challenge as Creative Director at TBWA / Integer was when we were invited to pitch on the Lion Breweries account to launch a beer to Aussies with virtually no alcohol in a declining beer market – it seemed impossible.
Adding to the pressure, we were up against another big agency who had failed to crack the idea after several attempts. Working with our team, we came up with the insight that we weren’t competing against other beers at all but enemies of the beer occasion like soft drinks and going home early.
WE WENT AGAINST THE CONVENTION OF LITE BEERS
We came up with THE 0.2 ADVANTAGE and turned our weak alcohol content of just 0.9% and just 0.2 standard drinks into our greatest strength. Yes, we had a great taste to talk about but even better, people could now continue sharing in a round of beers with practically no alcohol – it was the best of both worlds.
We gave our creative a cheeky, confident, full-strength tone of voice, which highlighted the key moments to choose beer.
Our sampling strategy was also disruptive, we spoke to people at moments when they normally couldn’t have a beer, mid-week when at work, giving them an excuse to extend their beer occasion with mates. We even interrupted them when shopping at lunch where our new beer was well received.
We demonstrated our 0.2 advantage by putting it in the hands of our customers in a way no other beer could, creating sampling experiences in office block foyers, in malls and at times of the week when moderators aren’t thinking about beer and gave them vouchers driving them off into store.
Hahn Ultra beer trolleys and promo staff greeted workers in 66 CBD office foyers across the country. They received a full bottle of beer on their lunch hour with a neck tag explaining the 0.2 Advantage.
Our Final sampling numbers went through the roof: 6010/4500 = 133.5% of KPI achieved.
Against all odds, the press world also caught on and our PR campaign generated 67 pieces of PR editorial coverage with 93% positive sentiment.
And we smashed our targets:
Total Litres sold was 43% above target.
And we achieved a massive 75% market share of Ultra Low beers, growing the whole Ultra low category by 480%
But most importantly we kept Aussie blokes together having beer.
What could be better than that?
Winning a Silver Effie!
Finally, you can’t launch an ultra-low alcohol beer in the manner we did without every team member, from our highly supportive client through to our samplers on the ground believing in what we were doing and how we were approaching it. The continuity of the campaign and its rollout was a testament to this.
