The Campaign

To promote New Zealand beer, Steinlager Pure, we partnered with New Zealand freediver William Trubride and turned freediving into a live national sporting event for the first time. The campaign introduced William and freediving to New Zealand and gave kiwi’s several ways to watch the dive live on the day.

Success of the Campaign

Nearly a quarter of the population tuned in to watch the event. Turning the most inaccessible and unknown sport in the world into the most watched New Zealand sporting event of 2014. - A combined New Zealand TV and online audience that was bigger than every All Blacks game of 2014 and the Fifa World Cup final. - 129 news stories and interviews with every major media outlet in New Zealand. - 23,580,635 media impressions. - In a declining market, Steinlager’s sales grew by 9%, twice the level expected. - William Trubridge has gone from being unknown to one of our most iconic sporting heroes.

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

First we introduced William to New Zealand through TV and cinema. Then we used PR and TV, radio and billboards to announce that we were turning William’s world record attempt into a live experience called The 102m Deep Dive. We informed New Zealanders about the attempt and the dangers and difficulties of freediving through social media, street posters,radio and partnerships with the NZHerald, herald.co.nz and BreakfastTV, who ran a series of editorial stories and interviews. On our website New Zealanders could send William messages of support. All this lead to The 102m Deep Dive which was broadcast on New Zealand's most popular morning news show as an hour-long live news show. Those who couldn't watch it on TV could follow in real time on radio and online. And with our Tweeting Sonar live updates were sent to twitter and digital billboards in New Zealand throughout the dive.

Steinlager is an iconic New Zealand beer brand. Because of this they have always supported iconic New Zealand sporting heroes and events. For years Steinlager had been relying on The All Blacks and Team New Zealand to carry them on their shoulders. But now they needed a new story to tell. We had one in William Trubridge, a 14x world record breaking, world champion freediver. An amazing New Zealand sportsman who agreed to attempt a death-defying world record with us - The 102m Deep Dive. The problem was it was taking place 120 meters under the water, 13000 kilometers away. We had to find a way to bring to the whole country. We needed to take an inaccessible sport and turn it into a spectator sport and turn an unkown champion into a household name.