The Campaign

In early 2014, Asahi decided to bring their products into the exciting new ‘night life market. Many big competitors own 90% of this market and as a result, as a Japanese beer brand, Asahi Beer struggles to attract and engage customers. To promote it, we created an integrated campaign for the biggest drinkers and wingers in town, foreigners and white collar workers. From bad traffic, all day meetings, girl rejection and poor air quality to name a few, they love to drink beer and complain over the smallest of things and so, the strategy was simple. Turn a complaint into an optimistic joke and into something they really like hearing – “Cheers for Every Tiny Thing”. Via an indoor promotion, a campaign site and social media platforms, we created 10 original quotes for use on Coasters and T-shirts, a quirky online “Cheers” creator and 10 uniquely funny “Cheers” inspired videos.

Success of the Campaign

With a limited media support package but an original idea topped up with light hearted fun, we knew the concept would reward us. The results were astonishing… • An increase of 150 more cooperative bars plus a nationwide influence within just 2 months • 40% sales increase, the best sales quarter in history • 50,000 unique interactions with our core target whilst playing the ‘lucky draw’ on coasters • 9000 core targets wearing our “Cheers” T-shirt • 15,000 unique visitors to asahibeer.com/cheers • 2,000 unique “Cheers” created by consumers on our campaign site • And, most importantly, we influenced 68% of our core target in bars to vowing they would live more positively and make a simple “Cheers” part of their everyday life.

Describe how the campaign/entry was launched and executed across each channel in the order of implementation.

WE TREAT THIS AS A GAME, NOT ADVERTISING. Releasing coasters introducing the campaign message to 50,000 core targets, we invited them to participate in our ‘lucky draw’ when they buy an Asahi beer at a bar. People win free beer, receive free “Cheers” T-shirts, drink more Asahi and “Cheers” more. We then encouraged our core target group to make their unique “Cheers” on our campaign site. Each “Cheers” was randomly generated by matching 3 words. This was supported by our fun “Cheers” video that followed the lives of two drunk happy souls finding every opportunity to “Cheers”, even underwater. For the first time in history, Asahi Beer reached China’s mass ‘night life’ market, making “Cheers for every tiny thing” the message for a new generation of drinkers to unite, raise a glass and say “Cheers”.