Background

We were tasked with releasing a new beer into an already crowded low-carb beer market; a market dominated by international beer brands who were running functional, health centric messaging. Our objective, was to gain a significant market share in the first 6 months, or risk having the beer discontinued.

Describe the creative idea

“I’m Drinking It For You” was a full-length, earnest love song and music video that gave drinkers the ultimate excuse to have a low carb beer –love. While the category norm was to talk to the functional benefits of lower carbs using percentages, “I’m Drinking It For You” spoke to the fact that when you drink a low carb beer, it’s not only you who benefit, but everyone else in your life as well. Released Valentine’s Day, the music video and accompanying song were launched through streaming services and the music industry’s native channels and media, allowing our message to infiltrate New Zealand culture in a way traditional advertising never could. The song was supported by a full campaign and digital service that let listeners create their own personalised versions of the song. The custom songs were shared via social media and delivered along with a voucher for our beer.

Describe the strategy

In New Zealand’s masculine beer culture, watching your weight is considered vain and self-involved. To successfully launch DB Export Gold’s new low carb variant, we needed to side-step this stigma to give everyone a reason, and an excuse, to enjoy our beer. We took a different tact to our competitors - avoiding their functional, health centric messaging, and instead focusing on what drinking a low-carb beer benefit that was more appropriate culturally and tonally for New Zealand.

Describe the execution

“I’m Drinking It For You", the full length love ballad that turned drinking a low carb beer into the ultimate selfless gift for those you love. Released Valentine’s Day on every major music platform, just as a traditional song would be, the track and music video focused around the line “I don’t need two hands to hold you” and a regular Kiwi couple as they sung about all the romantic everyday things they could do for each other with one hand-the key act being drinking lower carbs. The song was supported by live performances, radio interviews, remixes, performance tutorials,karaoke, covers, and an online tool that digitized our singers’ voices to let drinkers write their own lyrics to send to their significant other. Delivering the song via means true to the music industry allowed us to get our message into culture and the hearts, minds, and music charts of beer lovers.

List the results

The song reached #2 on the Apple Music charts, gained 5M listens (in a country of just 4.8M), had the highest ad engagement and recall statistics in any category in NZ, and contributed to an unprecedented growth when all other mainstream competitors were in decline.