TUI BEER PLUMBER

Bronze Spike
TitleTUI BEER PLUMBER
BrandHEINEKEN NEW ZEALAND
Product / ServiceTUI BEER
CategoryA02. Non-Fiction: series or film
EntrantSAATCHI & SAATCHI Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Entrant Company SAATCHI & SAATCHI Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Contributing Company SAATCHI & SAATCHI Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Contributing Company 2 UNION DIGITAL Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Media Agency SPARK PHD Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
PR Agency PORTER NOVELLI Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Production Company 8COM Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Production Company 2 BLOCKHEAD Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Production Company 3 FRANKLIN ROAD Auckland, NEW ZEALAND

Credits

Name Company Position
Antonio Navas Saatchi/Saatchi New Zealand Executive Creative Director
Corey Chalmers Saatchi/Saatchi New Zealand Creative Director
Guy Roberts Saatchi/Saatchi New Zealand Creative Director
Anna Kennedy Saatchi/Saatchi New Zealand Agency Producer
Paul Wilson Saatchi/Saatchi New Zealand Business Director
Marcelle Baker Saatchi/Saatchi New Zealand Business Director
Jonathan Bates Saatchi/Saatchi New Zealand Account Director
Murray Streets Saatchi/Saatchi New Zealand Director Of Strategy
Ian Hulme Saatchi/Saatchi New Zealand Senior Digital Strategist
Andy Morton 8com Director
Katie Millington 8com Executive Producer
Aaron Morton 8com D.o.p
Dan Kircher 8com Editor
Mike Harland PHDIQ Digital Director
Stacey Stephenson SparkPHD Media Director
Strahan Wallis Porter Novelli Managing Director
Joanna James Porter Novelli Account Director
Jarrod Bear Heineken New Zealand Group Marketing Manager
William Papesch Heineken New Zealand Tui Marketing Manager
Mike Rutledge Heineken New Zealand Tui Brand Manager

The Campaign

In New Zealand, increasingly aggressive legislative changes over the past two years have left alcohol TV advertising heavily regulated, and restricted in viewership - only viewable after 8.30pm. In recent months, the NZ government has placed even more restrictions on alcohol brands, to the point that broadcasting beer promotions are ultimately rendered impossible. Combined with dropping TV viewing numbers - as the target migrates to on-demand viewing, downloading and Facebook/YouTube as its primary channel - breweries have had to find alternative ways to tell brand stories without so many commercial broadcast limitations. While some beer brands make simple co-branded infomercials, or invest in sponsorships, no brand on NZ has currently gone further to creative longer-form, shareable, branded entertainment with the product as the central part of the story. In TUI Beer Plumber, the branding of TUI itself was deliberately downplayed in the film, which motivated social conversation about whether TUI was behind it. On closer inspection, The TUI logo and product itself are literally everywhere, but the audience appreciated the authentic way in which it was done. With nearly 8 million combined YouTube views and counting, this was branded content done right.

Results

TUI had lost its way. A local loveable beer brand was stuck in the past. Its advertising relied heavily on using sexy girls to build Kiwi bloke appeal. While that had worked for some years, theTUI drinker (aged 25 to 29) had moved on. With mainstream beer category in decline overall and the brand losing relevance, we needed to take action. We revisited the brand essence again 'always something brewing'. This was all about bringing to life the antics that happen when the guys get together. Enter our Idea: Play the ultimate prank on an unsuspecting TUI Drinker. While he was on holiday, TUI would take over his house and re-plumb it completely - with TUI beer. For real.When he came back and turned on the taps the ultimate lad's dream would come true. Channel-wise, this wasn't something you launched on TV. Consumers needed to discover it organically, endorse it and pass it on for it to have impact. Digital gave us the perfect launch platform. But just sticking the video in a pre-roll video wasn't the answer. We needed to be canny about who we engaged in the digital space. An extensive digital seeding strategy targeting key influencers both locally and internationally followed. After letting momentum build, the introduction of shorter form content in online ad placements extended reach further. Finally once interest hit fever pitch, we reverted to traditional channels TV and Cinema and invited consumers to enter a promotion to win a TUI Beer Tap in their home via POS.

We wanted to create buzz offshore first, that would then be picked up by media in New Zealand. The video was initially posted on an unbranded You Tube channel. We focused on securing international media, resulting in the prank being featured on the UK's Daily Mail, the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, USA today and more than 100 other global outlets, before turning our efforts to national media. Both national and international TV networks promoted the video for us and interviewed the lads involved. All of this invested it with social currency and drove a rapid increase in views.

The YouTube video received up more than a million hits in the first 24 hours and secured 51,000 Facebook 'shares' in the first two days. It was the most watched New Zealand-produced video in 2013 and generated 33 pieces of coverage in New Zealand with a total reach of 4.3 million people. To date over 8 million people have seen it, in 224 countries. In terms of media coverage, the story generated more than 317 million online media page impressions globally and the pranksters were interviewed on TV programmes from Melbourne toLA. It generated 43 items of coverage in Australia reaching 13.9 million people, 14 in the USA reaching nearly 71 million worldwide and 10 in the UK reaching 219 million globally. Total international coverage stands at 104 pieces with a combined total reach of 315.8 million. TUI's share of declining mainstream beer market grew to 25.3% during the campaign. Brand popularity increased by 8% year on year when the goal was just to stop the decline.