SAMUEL ADAMS OLYMPICS SPONSORSHIP ACTIVATION —
LET’S BREW SOME BRAND FAME IN THE UK
A RECIPE SUBMITTED BY: HUGO FOURNIER
DRIVING BRAND FAME IS LIKE BREWING A GREAT CRAFT BEER —
IT TAKES 4 COMPONENTS
HIGH QUALITY INGREDIENTS (JUICY INSIGHTS)
A FEARLESS HEAD BREWER (BOLD VISION & IDEAS)
PROPER EQUIPMENT (RIGHT PARTNERS)
CAREFULLY RESPECTED PROCESS (TIMELY ACTIVATION PLAN)
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3 4
—————————————————————————————————- BEFORE WE START BREWING: CHALLENGES AND COMMS TASKS
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TINY INVESTMENT (400K) CONSIDERING THE OBJECTIVE OF
DRIVING BRAND ADOPTION
BEER-SOAKED MARKET + CLUTERRED ADVERTISING
LANDSCAPE
WIDESPREAD DISTRIBUTION BUT LACK OF ACTIVE CONSIDERATION
OLYMPICS SPONSORSHIP —
WE HAVE 3 KEY PROBLEMS
Beyond pure brand building, sampling and on-ground presence will be paramount to drive brand
trial and eventually adoption.
Britain has 1,300 breweries per capita, more than anywhere in the
world. Add on top of this the Olympics noise and you get an
almost impenetrable environment.
While physical presence is achieved, the brand is far from
being salient or actively considered by consumers.
Find the brand story that will get our audience to ask for SA at the pub or pick the
brand on the shelf.
Make sure that a considerable number of SA beers will be
given to our audience.
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TASK: SAMPLING TASK: EARNED MEDIA TASK: CONSIDERATION
2 3
Make an impact and earn a big chunk of the games’ conversation in the UK.
—————————————— THE INSIGHTS —————————————————————
Domestic beer brands have for long time played on the fact that hops and barley are great social enhancers (e.g.: beer that will get you laid). Then, more premium players like Heineken have decided to capture the increasingly sophisticated and globalized characteristics of their target audience: trendy and hungry Millennials (e.g.: with ‘Open your world’)
In the case of craft beers, the mindset is at the polar opposite. First of all, the word ‘craft’ means it’s everything but industrial and globalized. Head brewers make their beer with the deepest conviction that beer can be better (from production to taste to packaging and so on). They’re generally independent, stubborn and involved in every step of the production process.
Like their creators, craft beer early adopters are very often part of or at least familiar with counter-culture movements while ‘regular drinkers’ of craft beers would see themselves as promoters of the unordinary and the uncommon. These folks are uber-authentic and they have an intolerance to hard marketing.
CRAFT BEER AND THEIR DRINKERS —
CATEGORY AND CONSUMER TRUTH
The beer was named after Samuel Adams, an American revolutionary patriot, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a citizen of the state of Massachusetts.
The most interesting bit for us is the following: as part of the American Revolution, he was directly involved in a movement opposed to the British Parliament.
So, not much more to say here.
SAMUEL ADAMS —
BRAND HERITAGE: MUCH MORE THAN CRAFT BEER
There will always be some sort of fierce yet fun rivalry between the 2 cultures. There are several manifestations in which publishers, brands and even ‘normal’ people spend time highlighting the differences and take the piss at each others.
And generally speaking, the UK always ‘win’ and comes out of the cultural battle as the cooler, the more sophisticated and THE example to follow.
SAMUEL ADAMS —
CULTURAL TRUTH: UK vs US
———————————————————— THE BRAND IDEA(S)
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The opportunity is bigger than we think as it’s much more than an American beer sponsoring the Olympics in the UK. It goes beyond
sports, gold medals, celebration and world records.
In fact, the jumping off point is an American brand that has a personal beef with the UK.
It’s an American beer brand that will for once and for good show the UK that America can be cool too.
THE BRAND IDEA(S) —
THE OPPORTUNITY
The American beer you will hate to love.
THE BRAND IDEA(S) —
OVERARCHING PROPOSITION
To really bring the brand proposition to life, we have a bigger idea.
In fact… it’s a sampling idea.
We’ll target the top-10 most anticipated events between both nations (media coverage and hype wise) and everytime Team USA wins over Team
GB, there will be free Samuel Adams beer flowing through the UK.
THE BRAND IDEA(S) —
SAMPLING IDEA
A sampling idea that connects to the Olympics’ energy and hype is effective to drive trial among our target audience but that alone won’t
drive brand fame and earned media.
We need a vehicle that would embody our proposition.
We need a social agitator. A storyteller.
Someone who would be Sam Adams’ biggest advocate in the UK.
THE BRAND IDEA(S) —
IN NEED FOR A SOCIAL AGITATOR
PLEASE MEET SAM ADAMS
You get it, we create a character (in fact an American tourist) who happens to be visiting
the UK during the Olympic Games.
He’s a sort of an intellectual and cynical yet quite funny lad.
Think of him as a late 20s who’s well-versed & well-traveled. He’s a Harvard graduate who looks down on UK culture in general. He’s
seen as a charismatic smart ass.
Above all, he’s American and he’ll be cheering for America (not just for the national
team, but also praising for the overall American culture) during his stay in the UK.
We use our character to fuel brand’s role of being the ‘official party pooper’ of UK’s overall Olympics’ celebration. He’d not only be cheering for Team USA, but he’d also criticize every single aspect of British culture (food, weather, words, accent, overall cynism, architecture, etc.)
Along with a media partner that we’ll define in a minute, Sam Adams will be highly active on the usual social media platforms. His implication will be crucial especially when it comes to the mass-sampling efforts in which he’ll have to nurture some passionate debates and even attend physically some of the broadcasting events in identified pubs.
In the phasing of the campaign, we’ll make sure that the perception of the public towards Sam evolves quite a bit.
The goal is to first make people react in a brash way towards such annoying character (desired reaction at pre-launch: ‘Bloody hell. Who’s that prick?’) and then, slowly but surely we make him part of the culture as an accepted and loveable outsider (desired reaction during and after the Olympics: ‘I have to admit that he’s funny and let’s face it, I just can’t be against high quality beer given away for free’).
THE BRAND IDEA(S) —
ROLE OF THE SOCIAL AGITATOR
Oupsy, team USA just beat you.
Free beer anyone?
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THE MEDIA PARTNER AND ACTIVATION PLAN ———————————————————————
VICE UK came up as the most relevant media partner for 3 key reasons:
1) A perfect fit with our audience (see next slide): VICE reaches twice as many 18-34 y.o. compared to other channels - index of 193 2) Relevance and influence: Network of 500 premium publishers for a mixture of different passion points we can target with our campaign 3) Content creation credentials and hub: Capability to create high quality/engaging content around our story and to host all of this on their platforms
THE MEDIA PARTNER AND ROLL-OUT PLAN —
THE MOST RELEVANT OPTION OUT THERE
THE MEDIA PARTNER AND ROLL-OUT PLAN —
THE PEOPLE WE’RE LOOKING FOR
Note: The data comes from VICE Canada although it gives a good example of the media audience we’re going after.
THE MEDIA PARTNER AND ROLL-OUT PLAN —
HOW DOES IT WORK
The entertaining story of Sam Adams in the UK
Propelled by VICE UK in the form of short webisodes and articles
THE MEDIA PARTNER AND ROLL-OUT PLAN —
DETAILED PHASING
PRE-GAMES DURING GAMES POST-GAMES
VICE WEBISODES TO ESTABLISH THE CHARACTER
CHARACTER’S OWNED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
PUB ACTIVATIONS
MASS-SAMPLING THROUGHOUT THE UKPROMOTION ON POS TO SEED THE IDEA THAT’S
SOMETHING IS COMING: SAM ADAMS IS GIVING AWAY TICKETS FOR RIO!
BRAND COMMS
PROMO ACTIVITY
ON-GROUND ACTIVATIONS
PR COVERAGE
VICE COVERAGE WITH THE CHARACTER DURING PUB ACTIVATIONS AND OTHER OLYMPICS CELEBRATIONS
RECAP CONTENT PUSHED THROUGH PAID ADVERTISING WITHIN VICE CHANNELS TO MAINTAIN INTEREST
(E.G.: BEHIND THE SCENE)
INTERVIEW WITH ‘SAM ADAMS’ IN WHICH HE DESCRIBES HIS EXPERIENCE AS THAT FAKE AMERICAN TOURIST
CHEERS MATE!(sighs)
Ok… thanks Mate.