Why is this work relevant for for Music?

The central creative idea for this campaign was an original music composition about the product and product benefits.

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”, 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.

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

Released on Valentine’s Day, an ordinary Kiwi couple sing a full-length, earnest love song about all the romantic things they can do for each other while holding a beer – including drinking a lower carb content. The song was released on all major music platforms, and targeted to listeners using Spotify’s in-depth listening data, crafting a new intro to the song based on listeners’ relationship status, activities, music interests, or time of day.

Describe the outcome

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. Culturally, New Zealanders responded with remixes, radio requests, karaoke versions, and a host of social dedications.