CLIENT: LION NATHAN
Beer advertising was in a funny place. Nobody did any great ads back then. There was the occasional funny one but nothing that was great. Everything that was out there was very ‘Blokey’, it was about men being men, and women being the butt of all jokes. The case that I made at the Client’s planning day was that beer advertining in this country didn’t acknowledge the fact that women drank beer too, and young men in their twenties had gilrs that were part of their friendship circle. Gone were the days of the barn yard dance when men stood on one side of the hall and women on the other. If anything, pubs weren’t our main domain, it was the night clubs, dance parties, music festivals and house parties. Yes beer was being consumed outside of pubs. Amazing!
RESULTS:
Our client at the time wanted to increase sales by $20M in the first year (Huge by Australian standards), we doubled it. We’d increased sales by a staggering $40M. Polarising yes. It was in Australia’s Top 50 commercials of all time (no 20) one of Australia’s most hated commercials of all time. (The oldies hated it, the younger adults loved it.) It was an ad that lead pop culture and truly defined a generation. It was the ad that the industry attributes to starting the beer wars. Beer is now one of the biggest adverting expenditure categories. It was the 31st most awarded ad in the world according to the Gunn report and won a Gold AFA effectiveness award. Ad of the year in Ad News magazine.
Great clients get great Advertising.
