The Campaign

Burleigh Brewing Company had a great beer, with a great heritage but it was really only a locally-recognized product. The challenge was to gain national awareness with no budget. The strategy was simple: Get talked about nationally. So, as a world first we decided to use Burleigh Brewing beer to paint one of Australia’s most loved surfing legends. Then entered the painting into Australia’s most well-known and publicized art prize – The Archibald. Leading newspapers and social media picked up the story and ran with it, and ran with it. The public interest is ongoing. Public relations is the driving force of the idea’s success. The idea is designed to start a conversation and therefore relies on the strength of the public relations success. The first media release coincided with the entries being delivered to the art gallery of NSW, home of the Archibald competition. This generally creates a lot of media interest. The timing was crucial.

The Brief

The goal was to gain national coverage for a small local brewery in Queensland. No research was undertaken. A knowledge of Australians love for beer and surfing was what we relied upon to create a newsworthy story.

Results

• Daily Telegraph online (1,561,000 unique viewers) • Daily telegraph/Courier Mail Newspapers (1.3 million circulation) A drip feed strategy keep the story top of mind for the following weeks while the Archibald Prize judges deliberated over the finalists. • Daily Mail (2,334,000 unique viewers) • Mashable (54,000,000 unique viewers) 751 shares • Mashable Australia Twitter (3,859 followers) • Mashable Global Twitter (5,500,000 followers) • U.S. People.com (8.6 million) • Daily Telegraph online (1,561,000 unique viewers) • Daily telegraph Newspaper (1.3 million circulation) • Perth Now (625,000 unique viewers) • Beer and Brewer Blog • Facebook, twitter, Instagram. The story is ongoing with Live Television appearences in the coming weeks.

Execution

The first media release coincided with the entries being delivered to the art gallery of NSW, home of the Archibald competition. This generally creates a lot of media interest. The timing was crucial. The Daily Telegraph ran the story online and in their national newpapers, this included the Courier Mail (Queensland’s leading newspaper). July 5th 2015. This was the big splash we planned for.

The challenge was to create a big PR splash for a little brewery (Burleigh Brewing Co.) with a tiny budget. $2,000 to be precise. Therefore we needed a concept that captured the imaginations of beer loving Australian's and would be talked about in national media. The Daily Telegraph (A national Newspaper) was the first to pick up the story. The rest followed to the tune of 65 million media impressions. The interest spread as far as the U.S. And interest is still growing. The project exceeded all objectives by a country mile.

The Situation

No media budget combined with a small business striving to become noticed in the cluttered craft beer category meant the need for a newsworthy story was paramount to the success of the campaign. The opportunity was the excitement and media coverage that surrounds the Archibald Prize for portraiture competition. PR is at the heart of the idea, without it there is no campaign.

The Strategy

The strategy was to get noticed and capture the imaginations of regular Australians. By taking on the art snobs we became an underdog in the Archibald Prize competition. We knew Australian’s love an underdog and hoped they would get behind us. And they did to the tune of over 75 million media impressions.