The Brief

With craft beer, consumers believe that the smaller or more grass roots the brewery is, the more legitimate the beer is. Our client, Lion Breweries while not small by any stretch of the imagination, produced its own line of craft beers called Crafty Beggars, with a (mostly true) backstory about 9 brewers who decided the world needed a better kind of craft beer. We needed to create a campaign that made people believe we were really passionate about the beer, the same way a smaller operation is perceived to be. Oh, and in NZ a Crafty Beggar isn’t a homeless person who knits, it’s slang for someone who is resourceful and a little cheeky.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

We launched a facebook page, then started a conversation about what would improve beers. Amongst others making their own suggestions, we then put forward our own. What if beers were insured? Amidst the positive reaction we then launched Crafty Beggars Beer insurance – allowing anyone drinking Crafty Beggars to claim insurance if they lost or broke their beers for any reason. An online claim form was set up, with posters, radio and online ads drawing people to the scheme.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

We built a fan base from 0 to 9,000 likes in a little under 3 weeks. And more than 3200 claims were made using the app, with an average engagement of 3.5 minutes.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Craft beer lovers fully embrace their beer as more precious than gold. This campaign showed Crafty Beggars felt exactly the same way, guaranteeing our punters replacement beers should their anything happen to the ones they had. It also allowed a big brewery to initiate a dialogue with customers the way a smaller outfit would, giving us further credibility in an industry where authenticity is paramount.