Apsotw may16 anna_thairs

Account Planning School of the Web - May 2016

Samuel Adams Boston Lager Olympics Sponsorship / UK Launch

Anna Thairswww.annathairs.com Please note that if I were presenting this ‘in person’, I would use a lot less text on each slide and ‘voice over’ information, explanation and ideas (which would mean the presentation would likely be shorter!)Acknowledgements: Paul Hutchinson (MEC) and Toby Bowerman, Danielle Norton & Chris Rhodes (Planning dept., HeyHuman)

Anna Thairs | APSOTW May 2016

Let’s jump straight in: your brief to us

Samuel Adams Boston Lager, an American craft beer, is launching in the UK with a bottom-tier Olympic sponsorship. We have $400k and so ideally will focus on partnerships for content creation. We want to make our target consumers do more than just ‘consume’, but actually adopt our brand. We need to ensure that Samuel Adams plays a role in their life that’s more than ‘just a beer’.


The key challenge we face? Credibility

Given that it is a new brand with little history in the UK, Samuel Adams lacks a sense of credibility for our audience, amongst our competitors, as a brand and as a business.

AUDIENCE CHALLENGE

Our target audience are Millennials - flighty, brand disloyal and easily distracted.

BRAND CHALLENGE

No one knows who we are, what we do or what we stand for as a brand.

COMPETITIVE CHALLENGE

The craft beer market is exceptionally crowded & competitive.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

We have a relatively small budget for activation to generate buzz & stand-out.


Samuel Adams is the unabashedly American craft beer

Our unabashed Americanness is what we can say credibly about our brand.

From a long line of brewers, our founder has always taken a leaf from the rulebook of our patron, Samuel Adams. We take a revolutionary and pioneering attitude to beer and followed our own path. We are passionate, authentic and utterly exuberant. Boston Lager is our flagship brew, exemplifying and carrying the torch for our spirit and values.

Our Americanness gives us strong cultural and contextual creds too - there’s little that’s more unabashedly American than the exuberance around sport and the important role it plays in American society.


The craft beer market is growing fast - but is crowded

1. It’s growing rapidly

Britain now has more breweries than anywhere else in the world – craft has hit the mainstream. There’s a burgeoning community of consumers sharing information and looking to explore new flavours, concepts and ideas.

20% of adults drunk craft beer in the 6 months to September 2014

Consumers are buying craft in mainstream outlets (78% from a supermarket, 38% of younger Millennials prefer convenience stores)

SABMiller bought Camden Town Brewery this year and Fuller positions its London Pride with a very strong craft tone of voice

48% of beer drinkers prefer to try many different beer brands

12% would buy a new beer because it came from an exotic location

47% of beer drinkers like to tell people about beers they’ve enjoyed

21% are interested in joining an online beer club – as shown by the popularity of beer exploration & rating app Untappd (more than 3m users)

45% would buy beer because of a recommendation

2. It’s so crowded it’s become a bit homogenous

CR A F T & S K I LL

AU T H E NT ICI T

Y & H

ERIT

AG

EALTER

NAT IVE AT T I TU D E

Craft brands tend to speak in one of three ways. They are all very serious and snobbish, exhibiting a very in-crowd versus out-crowd mentality and an almost off-putting pretentious dedication to their craft. We sit in the gap between attitude & authenticity.


Traditionally brands in the craft beer space cater to the hipster ‘core’ - those discerning consumers that

are passionate about craft beer and its ethos. For them, it’s more than just a drink, but is part of thier

self-defined identity. Just as a punk has his mohawk and a girly-girl loves prosecco, drinking craft beer is part of their identity - and so a lack of relevant

creds will be spotted a mile off.

We’d have difficulty targeting the core as Samuel Adams doesn’t have the hipster creds - it’s not got a great ‘indie’ reputation as it’s very large and has taken a disdainful view of

grassroots craft trends and preferences.

There’s a challenge with the core...


Samuel Adams is however the perfect brand for Mainstream Explorers - those individuals who are dipping their toe in to the brewing tank of craft. They’re interested in craft beer because it’s cool and different, rather than having the craft ethos running through their veins.

Given the infancy of the craft market, most brands, as we’ve seen, target the core - those who they know will understand and live their brand. This means we can carve a niche by targeting a higher-volume audience that is neglected by our competition.

... and an opportunity in the more mainstream


“Busy young men and women with a good level of disposable income” = 18-39 y.o. beer drinkers (mainly between 25 and 34) often but not exclusively ABC1 (59%) and almost all urban-dwelling (86%)

Our audience are experience-driven and fun-loving

They value experiences over material things, want to live life to the full - for positivity and out of FOMO. They’re entrepreneurial, independent and want to be the protagonist of their own stories. They engage in ‘identity curation’ – taking influences from a number of different sources to curate and create their own image that represents them and their individuality. They’re interested in enjoying life and the ride.

Tongue-in-cheek home pride

Experience- driven

Enjoying the ride

*Please see appendix for proof points


Beer in general is mostly drunk as a way to relax (60%) and as a way to have fun (32%). Craft beer takes these motivations to drink beer and combines it with ‘identity curation’ - they drink craft beer because it allows them to be different, to be individual to explore new flavours and experiences. Craft beer allows people to express themselves while having fun and relaxing with friends.

Craft beer allows them to have fun and express themselves


What are the Olympics all about?

A tribal coming-together in celebration of passion and skill

OPPORTUNITY:Use the Olympics as a cultural jumping-off point to drive awareness

of Samuel Adams within our Mainstream Explorer audience.


Observation 1

London 2012 kindled a new passion for the Olympics, patriotism and Team GB in the UK. But when it’s not on our doorstep, the excitement and sense of community are less intense.

We could do with someone to help us kick-start our patriotism and excitement.

THEN NOWLondoners’ memories of the 2012 Olympics Current press and social sentiment


Observation 2

“An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.”Brits have deep-set cultural norms that around politeness and being reserved - the

famous ‘stiff upper lip’. Anecdotally, Americans are often seen as brash, loud and uncouth.

But, sometimes, it’s good to let go and go a bit crazy.

US THEM

Anthropologist Kate Fox identifies the ‘brash’ Bill from Iowa and the ‘Indirectness Rule’ to explain our societal fear of exuberance and outward or extroverted displays of passion.


Insight

Brits often see Americans as being a bit ‘OTT’, but when we’re given

the opportunity and permission to, we enjoy going a bit OTT ourselves.

From street parties with strangers, Beatlemania to One Direction, Team GB throwing its athletes in the Olympic pool, even the pinnacle of Stiff Upper Lip - the royals - getting excited and making noise


Bring back unabashed American excitement to British drinkers

CULTURE CLASH CULTURAL TOURISM

ROLE FOR BRAND:

CREATIVE PROPOSITION

Go a bit OTT for Team GB with Samuel Adams

MEDIA STRATEGY ACTIVATION EXECUTION

OTT SUPPORTCREATIVE IDEA


This works because it’s something we can all get behind - and it’s got long-lasting legs

1. “Go a bit OTT for Team GB” is a behaviour that’s achievable for everyone, making Samuel Adams an inclusive and friendly brand. It doesn’t offer parameters, it just asks you to join in the fun.

2. OTT Support offers the opportunity to use ‘cultural tourism’ - the highlighting of differences and idiosyncrasies between nations - to generate buzz and give our partners a content focus.

3. It also gives us activation longevity - beyond the games, Samuel Adams can remain the brand that offers OTT support out of the context of the Olympics, into more general cultural events.

OUR TONE OF VOICE FOR OTT SUPPORTWe areUnashamedly AmericanPositiveFriendlyApproachableInclusiveSupportiveExcitableKeen

BoorishStupidPressuringBroheim / “frat boy”ArrogantAggressivePatronisingSuperior

We aren’t


Media Strategy

AWAR E N E SS MEDIA

SO

C IAL PA RT I C IPAT ION

IDEA: OTT

SUPPORT

OFF-TRADE

IN-BAR

FOCUSED ACTIVITY SPECIFIC TO CHANNEL AND PARTNER

FOCUSED ACTIVITY

SPECIFIC TO CHANNEL

AND PARTNER

Our strategy will use partnerships and social UGC to create content and generate awareness.

We will focus partnership effort on retail and pub/bar activity, with activity tailored specifically to those locations.

Meanwhile, we will use awareness media - partnerships with PR, social influencers and the media - to generate buzz, and social participation to drive interaction and foster a sense of community.

Role of media: show a movement of OTTRole of social: make it permissible to go OTTRole of partners: make it easy to go OTT

TARGETING

We will activate in selected, targeted areas to ensure a truly effective response with our market, rather than spreading ourselves thinly to poor reception:

Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, DeWrby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle and Sheffield - these areas have high concentrations of our Mainstream Explorer audience. We could also activate in smaller locations for PR stunts.

SOCIAL MEDIA ROLES

Twitter: Primary platform - Engage (social listening) Instagram: Primary platform - Engage (heroing consumers) Facebook: Secondary platform - Reach (share content)


Role of media: Show a movement of OTT

PARTNER: THE CHAP OLYMPIAD

We’ll send an OTT delegation to the Chap Olympiad.

Held annually towards the end of July, the Chap Olympiad is a celebration of all things stereotypically British and stiff-upper-lip, in the form of a sporting contest. We will send a delegation of OTT supporters with ‘TEAM GB’ painted on their chests, positive chants and fun pom-pom dances

to shake up the crowd and generate buzz.

We would create a piece of content ourselves to kick-start the chatter, but use social media to retweet and amplify UGC and press chatter about the stunt.


Role of media: Show a movement of OTT

PARTNER: INFLUENCERS / PRESS MEDIA OUTLETS

Get influencers to ‘go a bit OTT’ to tease the campaign

Last year, Jon Snow danced to Drake’s ‘Hotline Bling’, which got more than 11k retweets on Twitter alone. We like our figureheads to get out of character, and so we’ll encourage bastions of Britain (such as Jon Snow or Jeremy

Paxman) to do the unexpected and go a bit OTT commentating on a cricket match or PMQs online (through partners like the Guardian) and through selected press partners (such as the Metro, who have high circulation with

our audience). We’ll work with older-focused YouTube influencers such as Lily Pebbles or Grace Helbig to create ‘OTT’ content - OTT makeup tutorials, OTT crafts - to get people talking and sharing and kick off our ‘role of social’

activation - to make things permissible...


Role of social: make it permissible to go OTT

REACTIVE CONTENT

Be a truly Olympic campaign by tailoring rewards to live events

By creating reactive offers tailored to things that happen during the Games, we truly live our proposition - we care about going OTT, and we want to celebrate with our fans. By being reactive, we keep consumer eyes on our feed, generate positive sentiment and drive consumption of the brand -

offers and freebies are the first step in making the behaviour ‘permissible’. “Well, if it’s free/BOGOF, I might as well!”

We could partner with BuzzFeed to create reactive listicles and video commentaries from our OTT delegation on the latest happenings during the games.


Role of social: make it permissible to go OTT

SURPRISE AND DELIGHT THROUGH SOCIAL LISTENING

Get consumers involved by with UGC

We will hero our consumers who get involved in the OTT spirit by retweeting and rewarding with vouchers, engagement and offers. We can utilise social listening to start the conversation - looking

out for those who are despairing over Team GB or who need a bit of livening up. We will offer consumers the opportunity to win vouchers for Samuel Adams - or for those who send in the best

content (e.g. most OTT), tickets to the games.This gives us a stream of content that we can easily push out that comes from the best partners -

our consumers. It also ties in nicely with potential partnership activation...


Role of partners: make it easy to go OTT

KEY PARTNER: SAINSBURY’S SUPPORT PARTNERS: HIGH-FOOTFALL TARGETED INDEPENDENT CONVENIENCE

Offer and incentivise with OTT Super Fun Time Party Kits (Yeah!)We could partner with Sainsbury’s - a mid-mass-market chain with British roots and nationwide

outlets - and with independent convenience stores (where 38% of younger Millennials purchase their beer) in our targeted locations to offer OTT Party Kits along the lines of American Superbowl parties. There would be online support through Sainsbury’s with recipes and suggestions, and the kits could contain funny sunglasses, flags, mini sausage rolls, pom-poms and of course, Samuel Adams at a

discount. Convenience stores could offer smaller kits for Emergency OTT (going to a pub with mates).


Role of partners: make it easy to go OTT

PARTNER: BARS AND PUBS

Help people learn how to go OTT

Taking our cue from the ‘Golden Postbox’, we could contact traditional pubs in Team GB athletes’ home towns and work with them to exchange publicity for activation: we could turn to the

Whitelocks, the oldest pub in Leeds (the hometown of triathletes the Brownlee brothers) and get them to change their name for the duration of the games to ‘The Triathletes’. Those pubs could

screen the games and offer ‘OTT safe spaces’. We could partner with the pubs and bars we already have distribution in to offer similar OTT support

- washroom posters with ‘How To Go OTT’ guides, Olympic screenings and OTT pub quiz nights.

The Triathletes


Media Support

Goal: Drive Awareness

Any remaining budget could be funneled into targeted activation to drive awareness along the points of the customer journey.

This could take the form of digital OOH in our target cities and near our support pubs and bars using

up-to-the-minute fun OTT content, or geolocation mobile targeting to drive consumers to the bar. We could also partner with Great British Summer to put on one or two public big-screen showings of the days with the highest interest for Team GB supporters, allowing us to actually create an OTT

party space with beer, fun and experiences for our consumers to visit.


Customer Journey

PLANNING JOURNEY & ARRIVAL PURCHASE EXPERIENCE ADVOCACY

Who’s free for a get-together? Where should we go?

Icons: Flaticon

IN BAR - GET TOGETHERS WITH MATES

THINK

FEEL

DO

OPPORTUNITY

PLANNING ARRIVAL PURCHASE EXPERIENCE ADVOCACY

RETAIL - BUYING FOR OCCASIONS

THINK

FEEL

DO

OPPORTUNITY

Excited and anticipatory

Grab attention through stunts and/or social - target media and press

Trains are awful, wish we’d walked. Looking forward to a pint!

Longing and impatience

Targeted OOH/messaging near pubsActivation in-bar

What’s on tap? Do I want draft or a bottle?

Undecided and open

50% of decision making is at the bar - discounts and offers here?

I like they’re supporting Team GBI’m having a lot of fun

Happy and included

Encourage UGC Surprise & Delight

The beer was great - I had such a good time. I’ll follow them.

Excited and pumped-up

Continued targeting & offersReactive content online

What do I need for a BBQ/party? What will the weather be like?

Excited and anticipatory

Get on the list - grab attention through stunts and/or social

What’s on offer at the moment?I want to get in and out quickly

Determination and opprtunistic

Party packs & kitsTargeted media /comms

How much is this? Is it worth it?What can I do with all this stuff?

Excited and planning

Discount offersSuggestions and recipes

This party is going really well! I like their attitude

Happy and included

Encourage UGC Surprise & Delight

The beer was great - my party went so well. I’ll follow them.

Excited and pumped-up

Continued targeting & offersReactive content online

GET THEM WHILE THEY’RE SEARCHING

FOR INFOGET THEM AT THE BAR - 90% OF DRINKERS STICK WITH THEIR

FIRST CHOICE FOR THE REST OF THEIR SESSIONGET THEM TO REMEMBER

THE FEELING

KEEP IN TOP OF MIND

GET THEM WHILE THEY’RE SEARCHING

FOR INFO GET ON THE LIST GET THEM TO GET EXCITED BY YOUR BRANDGET THEM TO REMEMBER

THE FEELING

KEEP IN TOP OF MIND


Phasing

GOAL ACTIVITY SUPPORT

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Remind consumers how they felt during the London 2012 Olympics

Get people to express themselves fully (go a bit OTT) for Team GB during the Games

Encourage people to keep up the spirit of fun by activating around other British events

• Delegation to the Chap Olympiad (mid-July)

• PR Stunt with influencers ‘going OTT’

• Seeded media (BuzzFeed, press)

• Turn pubs and bars into bastions of OTT

• Sainsbury’s/Convenience Party Kits

• Reactive social

• Social media (BuzzFeed, b/vloggers)

• Discounts and offers in-bar• OOH Activation & push

notifications• Surprise & Delight

• Reactive Social• Continue to work with

influencers /our fan delegation to keep up the OTT spirit at other British events (e.g. cricket)

• OOH• Partner discounts• Social listening - surprise &

delight

Thank you

Sources: Mintel Craft Beer Overview (2015) Mintel Beer Report (Feb 2016)Eventbrite Research - Millennials Want Experiences Kantar TGI Clickstream Kate Fox - ‘Watching the English’Flaticon.com & Google ImagesHeadline Images: BuzzFeed, the Guardian, theConversation.com, Daily Express, Twitter


“Busy young men and women with a good level of disposable income”

Appendix - Audience

Home pride

Despite the British biting self-deprecating humour, there’s a sense of home pride.

Experience Collectors & Social Curators

Millennials spend more on ‘experiences’ than things, collecting and curating their identity to share on social.

Lighter side of life

We hear a lot about how ambitious and entrepreneurials are – but they’re also passionate about having fun and enjoying the ride.

47% think pubs are an important part of British life

62% think it’s important to respect traditional customs and beliefs

42% agree that the 2012 Olympics had a positive effect on ordinary Londoners’ lives

Represent 24% of spending on domestic holidays

34% buy goods produced in their own country whenever they can

Despite a downturn in reported patriotism for Millennials (only 15% describe themselves as ‘very’ patriotic, 30% as slightly), they engage with tongue-in-cheek ‘rivalries’ online (e.g. #AmericansvBritish trending on Twitter)

65% of Millennials are driving the ‘experience economy’ - valuing experiences not things, worth £420m each month through things like pop-ups, interactive dining experiences like Secret Cinema, or games such as the Crystal Maze reboot.

Google searches containing the word ‘Tumblr’ have overtaken ‘blog’ - a platform designed for social image curation

60% are interested in other cultures

67% like to try new food products, and 65% new drinks

21% are interested In joining an online beer club

12% of drinkers would buy a new beer because it came from an exotic location

69% want to have fun and enjoy life’s pleasures most in life

42% see sport mainly as a way of having fun rather than doing exercise

50% Buzzfeed traffic from 18-34s (60% mobile traffic, 75% traffic from social referrals)

60% drinkers drink to relax, 32% to have fun, 51% for taste, 17% ease of social interaction

Sources: Mintel, TGI, Eventbrite Millennial Research, BuzzFeed, VisitBritain

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