DETAILS
CAMPAIGN SUMMARY
With social media being such a new tool at a marketer’s disposal – there isn’t a large bank of knowledge, best practice or principles that can be easily applied to your own brand and its challenges. And unfortunately for marketers, social media is a topic that seems to attract more than its fair share of opinion, often at the expense of genuine expertise. By ignoring some ‘popular wisdom’ we gave Facebook a clear role to play in stemming the decade long decline in the iconic Australian beer brand Victoria Bitter (VB).
With much of VB’s poor performance put down to a major loss in our committed 35+, blue-collar drinker base – Facebook gave us an opportunity to engage this audience in a way we’d never been able to before.
Many said that this audience couldn’t be engaged through Facebook. However through behaving like a mate not a brand, and adding genuine value to their lives, we converted a significant portion of them into a vocal and influential community of VB evangelists.
They spread the news about the brand with more authority than the brand could itself, they helped to reverse negative sentiment towards VB, and they built belief back into our brand idea of ‘a hard earned thirst’. This isn’t an example of tacking on social media activity to a TV campaign. This story demonstrates how social media is most effective when you give it a very specific role, and how social channels can build brand value through involvement, not just messaging.
CREDITS OF PEOPLE
James McGrath, Creative Chairman, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Ant Keogh, Executive Creative Director, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Jim Ingram and Ben Couzens, Creative Directors, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Ben Couzens,, Art Director, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Jim Ingram, Copywriter, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Sasha Cunningham, Head of Social & Content Strategy, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Nathan Rogers, Social Analyst, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Mike Derepas, Planning Director, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Matthew Kingston, Senior Planner: Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Paul McMillan, Managing Partner, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Simon Lamplough, Client Services Director, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
John Meagher, Account Director, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Georgia Field, Account Manager, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Giselle Tooth, Account Executive, Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Andy Gibson, Chief Marketing Officer, CUB
Andy Meldrum, General Manager of Marketing, CUB
Richard Oppy, General Manager of Marketing, Victoria Bitter & Crown Lager
Craig McLean, Senior Brand Manager, VB
Mim Orlando, Brand Manager, VB
Belinda Brosnan, Asst. Brand Manager, VB