The Brief

Fat Yak Pale Ale is a boutique beer in a marketplace dominated by big brands with similarly sized marketing budgets. The brewery came to us wanting an idea that would stand out in a cluttered marketplace and speak to craft beer consumers in a way the large brands can't.

Creative Execution

Fat Yak had developed a loyal following amongst craft beer drinkers. As a promotional device, the Fat Yak Cup allowed us to reach a larger audience without offending the brands fan base. Using targeted on-premise devices, carefully planted TV ads and online content, the yak race became a sort of anti-Melbourne Cup (The Melbourne Cup being the premier sporting event in Australia) for guys into craft beers.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We decided, like all decent beer brands, Fat Yak needed to sponsor a sporting event. The only thing they could afford to sponsor (or for that matter seemed appropriate) was a yak race in Mongolia. And so the Fat Yak Cup was born. We then needed to find a delegate to send from Australia to compete in it. We found him and alerted consumers to the race through a direct response campaign using TV ads, branded content (online and TV) and on-premise devices. It was hoped the event and the campaign surrounding it would also lead to increased sales and demand on pub and bars to stock Fat Yak.

Results

The campaign saw awareness of Fat Yak boosted from 28% to 62%. Fat Yak had unprecedented 16% volume uplift over the previous year. The campaign tripled the national average redemption rate for direct response promotions