CASE 8 283- Increase spontaneous awareness, advertising awareness
and product quality attributes: excellent quality and good
taste, compared with the pre-test. - Increase trial, decrease the number of rejectors (those
who do not like Maes at all) and realise a significant
increase in brand adoption. - Install attitude on the basis of the following attributes:
sympathetic, continuously does new and interesting
stuff, a brand that is up to date, a brand with character,
self-confident.
The focal target group of the campaign was ‘entry drinkers’,
males between 18 and 35 who have not yet made their beer
choice and are open to a different brand than the market
leader. They often see Jupiler as a brand of the older
generation, and want something else. These youngsters
are looking for refreshingly new, challenging and modern
brands with guts. For them, going out and drinking beer
is no longer the exclusive territory of men and their
stereotypical jokes, but also includes women.
A new beer, a new creative approach
The creative approach and the resulting campaign media
and tools choice were unusual for a beer brand, and con-
sistent with the communications strategy. The following
guidelines were applied in all communication tools: The product is the hero; a powerful emphasis on the
product, leading to an appeal in appetite.
Blue (the Maes colour) is the differentiating colour.
A straightforward message that can be easily decoded
by all consumers.
Self-confidence and intelligent humour.The credentials of the campaign aimed at making the brand
a hero again. The key visual introduced the new beer and
new bottle in all their glory. The visual was meant to evoke
pride and confidence and generate an appetite appeal. It
was used in all campaign tools during the first wave. The
trial campaign tried to install Maes as an active brand.
Through proximity and innovative trial actions, Maes
directed consumers to make them taste the new beer.
Two large-scale brand activations were rolled out, one
in May and one in November. In the first one, ‘Put a case in
front of your window’, people were asked to put an empty
beercase of whatever brand in front of their window. Maes
exchanged this empty case for a full one (24 bottles).
During the nine-day campaign, 36 000 cases of Maes
were exchanged. The campaign was intensively discussed
in the (social) media. As a result of this campaign, Maes
ended up in the refrigerator of many potential consumers
that were up to then loyal to the market leader. They now
had the opportunity to try Maes 24 times. In the secondbrand activation campaign, ‘A can with a message’,
Maes actively sought social consensus. Via the website
maes.be friends could send a four-pack of Maes to their
friends’ homes, including a message to their friends. The
50 000 available packs were sent and delivered within
days, generating 50 000 ambassadors for Maes. Both
actions aimed at generating trial and sympathy in a
surprising and novel way.
Consistent with the communications and creative
strategy, the campaign tools were radically different from
those of the competitors. Traditionally, TV has been the
primary medium in a beer campaign. It allows emotions
to be expressed and reaches a broad target group at the
moment of consumption. Maes decided to do it differently.
Outdoor was the primary medium of its campaign. This
allowed the brand to be on the street, prominently and
confidently talking to beer drinkers. Outdoor was com-
plemented by radio commercials to tell the Maes story in
more detail. However, traditional mass media were only a
minor part of the media mix. Maes wanted to ‘do’ rather
than ‘talk’. Consequently, a large part of the budget was
devoted to brand activation, to get in touch with the
consumer. Brand activation was not used as a tactical tool,
but as an image-building branding tool. The mass media
were prominently used to announce the brand activation
campaign, mixing commercials and editorial content. Next
to ‘paid media’, ‘earned media’ were also used: public
relations, blogs and social media. The high ‘buzz potential’
of the brand activation campaigns generated a lot of
free media coverage and from consumers talking about
the brand in blogs, on Internet forums and in social media.
This resulted in the following media mix (percentages
of the total budget): TV 12.8%, radio 7.8%, newspapers
0.8%, magazines 0.8%, outdoor 16.9%, brand activation
23.5%, public relations 2%, point-of-sales 9.8% and events
23.5%.
As a reaction to the Maes campaign, market leader
Jupiler increased its promotional pressure by lowering its
prices and increasing sales promotion activity, resulting in
a substantial decrease in the average sales price and
increased visibility in the shops.Impressive results
The commercial objective was to realise a market share
of 7.8% in 2009. Maes’s market share in 2009 was 8.1%,
substantially above the objective. Moreover, since Maes
did not do well during the first three months of 2009, this
had to be compensated during the campaign period.
Market share during this period was 8.3% (Figure 8.13).
The evolution of awareness and image parameters
was measured four times: in March (pre-test), May–June,
September and December 2009. The measurements show
that there was a strong and immediate impact in May–JuneM08_PELS3221_05_SE_C08.indd 283 6/6/13 9:23 AM