Hello, laineynf-ga!
Focusing strictly on marketing in Ireland was a bit of a challenge.
However, I believe I have found sufficient information for you to
understand and formulate how the company has marketed Budweiser to the
Irish youth market, in particular. I have also included some other
examples of marketing campaigns that Budweiser has used to attract
Irish consumers.
Some company background:
***********************
From "International beer operations. "Anheuser-Busch.
http://www.anheuser-busch.com/overview/international.html
Anheuser-Busch has had a license brewing agreement in the Republic of
Ireland with Guinness? Ireland Group since 1986. Budweiser is brewed
locally at Guinness' Kilkenny brewery, where an Anheuser-Busch
brewmaster oversees every step of the brewing process.
The Republic of Ireland is Anheuser-Busch's fourth-largest market
outside the United States and Budweiser is the country's best-selling
lager beer and second best-selling beer overall. In addition,
independent market data shows that in the bottled beer sector, the
brand had double the sales of its nearest competitor, while outselling
its next nearest competitors by three and four times respectively.
Budweiser sponsors a number of activities each year, including the
Budweiser Irish Derby, the highlight of Ireland's social and racing
calendars. Budweiser has sponsored this thoroughbred classic since
1986, and its long-standing sponsorship generates worldwide
recognition for the brand.
An advertising case study:
*************************
This first article is probably the best answer to your question. It
was the only comprehensive article I could find outlining the
company's positioning strategy and methods of targeting to the select
group of youthful consumers.
In 1997, in response to research that warned about complacency in
advertising and the importance of staying focused on your target group
of consumers, Guinness approached Fleishman-Hillard Saunders about
producing an advertising campaign to reach their target audience of
18-24 year
olds.
I have excerpted the following description of the advertising
campaign directly from the website.
The important highlight about this campaign was that it drew in
consumers by allowing them to become actively involved in deciding
which lizard should be "elected" as "spokesperson" for the company.
This is an extremely good example of increasing brand awareness and
loyalty by directly involving potential consumers in an advertising
campaign.
*** Amazingly, 64,000 people voted in the final "election of the
advertising campaign! ***
The campaign also served it's purpose by boosting recognition of the
brand and sales of the beer!
** "Sales penetration of 18-24 year olds increased by over 2.5% in a
four month period." **
====
THE ARTICLE
***********
"F-HS was asked to develop a programme to address this issue and
implement a plan to reach its key audience in a subtle and interesting
way. The programme was to target the 18-24 year old age group, in an
unexpected and creative way and utilise an activity or property in
keeping with core brand image. The programme had to be unique to
Budweiser."
The Campaign:
"A new Budweiser advertising campaign was introduced featuring three
frogs - Bud, Weis and Er as brand 'spokespersons' and furthermore two
lizards - Frank and Louie. F-HS was to take this advertising property
and turn it into a fully structured, integrated national campaign that
would have significant impact across every aspect of the brand's sales
and marketing activity. The idea proposed by F-HS was to harness
consumers interest in the frogs and lizards campaign and let them
decide who should be the spokespersons for the brand. Hence, a
nationwide lobbying campaign was mounted on behalf of both the frogs
and the lizards culminating in a national election to decide if Louie
was indeed to realise his lifelong ambition!"
"The programme for the campaign and election was divided into five
phases; Preparation, Subterfuge, Reveal, Decision Time and Election."
"The Preparation involved up-weighting the TV campaign and the
addition of a Frogs & Lizards 48-sheet poster campaign to raise
awareness. A press pack was issued to the media to ensure they were
fully aware of the campaign. The Subterfuge phase began with frogs and
lizards 'campaigners' defacing the 48 sheet posters with a series of
anti frog and lizard slogans. This was followed by the creation of an
anonymous hotmail site for both the frogs and the lizards and the
distribution of a series of chain letters to a mailing list of 4,500
18-24 year olds. In addition a series of Frogs legs breakfast tastings
were set up at key Dart stations around Dublin. Sandwich board
campaigners took to the streets to harness support for either the
frogs or the lizards and collected in excess of 12,000 signatures.
Frog road crossing signs were erected early in the morning in key
cities around the country, replaced later by a sign illustrating a
frog that had been squashed by a lizard footprint."
"The Reveal was where Budweiser was 'outed' as the instigators of the
campaign which raised the awareness amongst the media. An exclusive
feature ran in a Sunday Newspaper tying together all the activity of
the campaign to date. Having been found out, Budweiser formally
announced the national frogs and lizards election roll-out. Two
hundred pub 'election rallies' were held at which people cast their
vote. It was driven nationwide via a promotional programme called
'Swamp Fever', where people could win prizes based on winning games
and answering questions correctly. The campaign was supported by an
extensive advertising and PR campaign concentrating on the election
and encouraging consumers to vote - on the Internet or by a freephone
telephone number."
"This activity culminated with Election Day. The final election
results were announced at two election parties in Dublin and in Cork.
These events were set up like real American election rallies with
video inputs from a guest reporter giving the latest results from
polling stations around the country. Each of the parties came to a
climax with the announcement that Louie had won the election and the
unveiling of the ad with Louie making his debut as the 'spokesperson'
for Budweiser. The new TV ad was also aired on RTE for the first time
that evening."
"Following the conclusion of the campaign a detailed quantitative and
qualitative evaluation was undertaken."
"Clearly the public had bought into the campaign as 64,000 people
voted in the election, with votes coming from the following areas.
12,000 voted via the sandwich board campaign
10,500 voted via the freephone number
22,000 voted via the website
20,000 voted via the in-pub promotional programme
"A qualitative analysis of the media coverage revealed 100% positive
coverage for the campaign."
*** "Sales penetration of 18-24 year olds increased by over 2.5% in a
four month period."****
"The campaign also won the Supreme Award for Excellence in Public
Relations at the PRCA Awards in June 2000."
From "Guinness Ireland Group - Budweiser. Budweiser Frogs & Lizards
Election Campaign."
Fleishman-Hillard Saunders International Communications.
http://www.fhs.ie/whatwedo_market_com_cs_frogs.htm
===============
Budweiser has also used the World Cup Soccer Finals as an effective
promotional marketing strategy tool in Ireland!
*****************
From "Budweiser secretes promotion transmitters in cans." Ananova. (
March 2002)
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_538560.html
"Budweiser has launched a World Cup promotion using global positioning
satellite technology.
It has hidden special transmitters inside beer cans and bottles sold
in multi-packs in stores across the UK.
Opening a special can or bottle will be picked up by communications
satellites. Winners will be tracked down and receive a trip to see
England and Ireland in the World Cup finals.
Budweiser says the GPS promotion is a first for European consumers.
The company says it has already randomly released 25 special
multi-packs in stores throughout the UK.
Each will have a single bottle or can containing no liquid, but a tiny
GPS transmitter.
Budweiser are confident they'll be able to hand deliver tickets to
each winner within 24 hours of receiving the signal, without the need
for the winner to contact them.
The grand prizes include roundtrip airfares to Japan for two people,
four nights' hotel accommodation and tickets to see both England and
Ireland play a pool match.
"We're giving away ticket packages in a way that has never been done
before," said the company's UK marketing manager Randall Blackford.
"It's a fantastic way to promote Budweiser's official sponsorship of
the 2002 FIFA World Cup."
=====
Louie the Lizard helps promote Budweiser!
"Budweiser continues to perform strongly, maintaining its position as
Ireland’s No. 1 selling packaged beer, with 21.5% share and volume up
by 4.9% according to Guinness UDV.
With World Cup Football fever upon us, Budweiser has developed
impactful POS and consumer promotion that will run in 450 key
off-trade outlets. As the sole alcohol sponsor of the FIFA 2002 World
Cup, Budweiser will be giving away inflatable replicas of Budweiser’s
best-known brand champion, Louie the Lizard."
From "Summer Satisfaction." Checkout Ireland. (June 2002)
http://www.secure-ssl-server.org/checkout/MarketProfile.asp?ID=2
Budweiser's "Wassup" advertising has proven to be a good means of
viral marketing!
***********************************************************************************
From "Term of the Fortnight - Viral Marketing." eBusiness News from
Business Ireland. (8/2001)
http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/ebusiness/news-newsletter-archive-details.asp?newsletterid=39#c12
"Viral Marketings refers to "a form of online marketing where the
customer passes on information to other potential customers, instead
of you contacting them directly: think of it as "word of mouth"
marketing for the Internet. Budweiser was one of the first companies
to embrace this, with the croaking frogs. The "Wassup" campaign has
been another successful campaign - on a variety of media."
===
How successful has the "Wassup" campaign been in Ireland? According to
research, very successful!!
*** "Budweiser, with the "Wassup" campaign tops Best Ad charts at
29%." ***
From "Decoding The Lifestyles Of Young Adults : An invaluable insight
into lifestyles, attitudes and behaviour of young adults in Ireland is
provided in the results of an extensive survey carried out on behalf
of leading marketing-media companies."
http://www.clarechampion.ie/01/apr/cc20010406/ge_ya.htm
===
"Creating a Successful Viral Marketing Campaign for your Online Brand.
Case Study: Budweiser - Winner of the Annual Advertising Award in
Cannes, Budweiser `whassup' was the most successful advertising
campaign of last year. What many people don't realise is that the
first time that many 18-24 year old men saw this word was on their
mobile phones, through a wireless whispering campaign started by
Aerodeon."
From "Brand Building on the Internet." Conference Calender. (June
2001)
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:hdJODIYRR08C:www.haymarketconferences.com/brochure_pdfs/Brand_building.pdf+Budweiser+%2Bmarketing+to+Ireland&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
====
"KINSALE NETS CREATIVE BEST
"The 38th International Advertising Festival of Ireland was held in
Kinsale on September 7th-9th this year. The Festival attracted over
800 entries from Ireland and around the globe. As per usual delegate
places were at a premium as the full 380 allocation was taken up."
"Budweiser's 'Wassup' campaign won the Grand Prix following its Gold
Lion award at Cannes. Wassup was subsequently run in Ireland after the
Kinsale win and has been grabbing headlines ever since."
From "ADVERTISING TO GREAT EFFECT." Institute of Advertising
Practitioners in Ireland. (1/2001)
http://www.iapi.ie/newsissues/agency.htm
===
The "Wassup" campaign has certainly gotten the attention of the youth
consumer. Just read this write-up about the "'Wassup guys' in the
Oxford University Student Paper. With all the topics to write about,
this is testimony to the popularity of the advertising campaign!
The following is a copy of "OUR NIGHT ON THE TOWN WITH THE BUD," by
Shade Grant and Lynn Featherstone. Oxford Student (October 2000)
http://www.oxfordstudent.com/2000-10-19/news/6
"WAAAASSSSSUUUUP! Just sitting in Yates's, drinking a Bud... Hardly a
chance encounter with Fred and Paul, better known a the 'Wassup guys'
- well, half of them anyway. Oxford is just one of the stops on their
promotional tour around the UK, which takes them to Ireland next.
So, what were their first impressions of our fine city? "Beautiful and
historic." True, but don't expect them to don college scarves in the
near future. As Paul told us: "I'm a slacker, I only have an
undergraduate degree."
With Hollywood now knocking at their doors, their quest is now "to
really become famous".
In case you were under the misconception that the world-famous
advertising campaign was dreamt up in the Budweiser boardroom, here
are a few facts you should be aware of. The idea came from a
two-and-a-half minute short made by Charles Stone, which was spotted
by an advertising agency.
'Wassup' has, however, been around for a lot longer than you or I dare
to imagine, as it dates back to their high-school days.
But this is all incidental. We know the question you're all dying to
ask is: "how do you do the perfect 'wassup'"? Only too pleased to
share their immense knowledge on the subject for all you wannabes out
there, this is how they do it: "start it in the diaphragm, take it up
through the throat and release through the tongue."
History of Budweiser's Frogs and Lizard Advertising Campaign
************************************************************
Since the following article focuses on the US campaign, I did not
excerpt it here. However, it is a rather lengthy treatise on why the
campaign has been successful......and you may be able to apply some of
those concepts to similar successes in Ireland.
Read "Marketing - You Must Be Joking," by Don O'Sullivan and Donncha
Kavanagh. National University of Ireland, Cork. (1999)
http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/mgt/dk/joking.pdf
=====
The strict focus on Ireland did not turn up as much as I had
expected. However, the above information should provide a good
background. If you need further clarification, please ask and I will
be happy to help.
umiat-ga
Google Search Strategy
Guinness advertising AND ireland +lizards
Budweiser +wassup +Ireland
Budweiser brand marketing +Ireland |
