DB EXPORT BEER BOTTLE SAND

Short List
TitleDB EXPORT BEER BOTTLE SAND
BrandDB BREWERIES
Product / ServiceDB EXPORT
CategoryA01. Fast Moving Consumer Goods
EntrantCOLENSO BBDO Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Idea Creation COLENSO BBDO Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Media Placement PHD Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Additional Company UNION DIGITAL Auckland, NEW ZEALAND
Additional Company 2 FINCH Auckland, NEW ZEALAND

Credits

Name Company Position
Nick Worthington Colenso BBDO Creative Chairman
Andy Blood Colenso BBDO Executive Creative Director
Simon Vicars Colenso BBDO Creative Director
Andre Sallowicz Colenso BBDO Creative Director
Brett Colliver Colenso BBDO Art Director
James Tucker Colenso BBDO Strategist
Brent Courtney Colenso BBDO Senior Designer
Angela Watson Colenso BBDO Head of Account Management
Brodie Reid Colenso BBDO Group Business Director
Micth Lovich Colenso BBDO Business Director
Kate Boekhorst Colenso BBDO Project Manager
Neil Walker Colenso BBDO Senior Account Manager
Robert Vela Colenso BBDO Account Executive
Jen Storey Colenso BBDO Head of Broadcast
Paul Courtney Colenso BBDO Executive Producer
Scott Chapman Colenso BBDO Senior Producer
Adnaan Narot Colenso BBDO Production Coordinator
Mylene Ong Colenso BBDO Head of Strategy
Andy McLeish Colenso BBDO Head of Planning
Nick Harvey Colenso BBDO Experiential Group Business Director
Nick Harvey Colenso BBDO Experiential Group Business Director
Kath Doubleday Colenso BBDO Account Manager (Experiential)
Andy Routley DB Breweries Managing Director
Sean O’Donnell DB Breweries Marketing Director
Tony Wheeler DB Breweries Senior Marketing Manager – Mainstream Brands
Heath Dickson DB Breweries Brand Manager – DB Export

The Campaign

The world is running out of sand. Sand is used in everything from construction to pharmaceuticals, and as result two thirds of the world’s beaches are retreating. Desert sand is too fine to be used in construction, sending the demand for beach sand soaring. A billion-dollar black market has resulted in the illegal extraction of sand from Sierra Leone to Singapore. Sand is the second most exploited natural resource on the planet and takes hundreds of thousands of years to regenerate. At the same time, global mainstream beer consumption is in decline. So we built machines that turn empty beer bottles into a sand substitute. To save their beaches, we asked New Zealanders to empty a bottle of DB Export. Made from desert sand, each bottle makes 200 grams of sand substitute. To make a difference we needed New Zealanders to empty as many DB Export bottles as possible!

Creative Execution

Our promotional campaign encouraged New Zealanders to take action. TV, outdoor, digital – even the labels on the bottles – everything directed drinkers to take one simple action: empty a bottle of DB Export. The more empty bottles we had, the more sand substitute we could create. The machines toured bars and events all over the country. Each machine turns a bottle of DB Export into sand in just 5 seconds. As the bottle is pulverised a vacuum system removes contaminants like plastic labels, leaving behind 200 grams of sand substitute. We then partnered with New Zealand’s largest recycling company to create commercial quantities of our sand by combining our empty bottles with non-recyclable glass destined for landfill. For every 12 pack of beer sold in New Zealand, 3 bottles end up in landfill. DB Export Beer Bottle Sand kept both sand on the beaches, and glass out of landfill.

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

The machines (and their social media connectivity) helped drive a huge response. Our drinkers emptied 13 million bottles - helping DB Export become the only mainstream beer to grow in value and volume. In a category declining at 6%, DB Export sales increased by 9%. Thanks to our drinkers, Beer Bottle Sand was supplied to construction companies, roading projects, golf courses, and drainage companies around the country. A two year deal to supply Beer Bottle Sand to Drymix (New Zealand’s largest concrete producer) has seen us create our own brand of eco-concrete, sold to consumers through the country’s biggest home improvement chain (104 stores). Requests for our machines have come from as far away as Japan, with scoping to supply Dubai with 500 machines currently underway. Thousands of user-generated videos were shared from machines, with our campaign video receiving 53 million views and 700,000 shares.

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

At the heart of this campaign were our DB Export Beer Bottle Sand machines. They turned bars, pubs and liquor stores into a promotional space for DB, and gave the campaign a clear and simple way for consumers to be involved. To make our Beer Bottle Sand we needed drinkers to get involved by emptying a bottle of DB Export. This was an ongoing brand promotion that people were happy to be involved with! Our fully branded eco concrete (made using Beer Bottle Sand) sold nationwide, adding yet another way for New Zealanders to get involved with our promotion.

Men aged 25-34 are the biggest beer consumers both in New Zealand, and worldwide. This demographic is often painted as self-centred, blokey, and prone to moments of stupidity and short-sightedness. But our research into our core target market unearthed some more noble traits than the usual clichés suggest. We discovered that these men want to make a difference. They want to make their mark on the world and are more invested in their environment than we give them credit for. Sure, they’re still often blokey. Still prone to moments of stupidity but with underlying character traits that gave us a great way in. The simple call to action across all of our work – drink DB Export, save our beaches – created a fun permissibility around beer drinking. It allowed NZ men, who had been turning away from the beer category to feel good about themselves for choosing us.

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