I’ve been chuckling to myself quite a bit lately about Cartlon Draught’s current “Slow Mo(tion)” TVC instalments. HILARIOUS!
Carlton Draught seem to be one of those beer brands at the forefront of consumer advertising. Their adverts reflect what Dawes (2008) refers as the ‘Australian beer advertising trifecta’ of manliness, national pride and beer. Not to mention humour, a common ingredient in alcohol advertising. And of course, who can forget their “Big Ad”, which went viral – 800,000 people viewed the advert online in just ten days (B&T, 2005).
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| Image Source: B&T (2005) |
According to Smith (2009), online engagement is paramount to building long-term supporters, who will purchase the brand but also recommend them to others. However, the Full Version Slow Mo Carlton Draught Ad hasn’t had the same reach of the Big Ad, with just over 390,000 views versus 1,200,000 views respectively. I wonder if the difference in hits has resulted in fewer sales this year, and whether the guys at Foster’s were aiming for their current campaigns to once again, achieve incredible viral status. That being said, we marketers sometimes say that you cannot make an advert with the sole intention of becoming a viral. After all, it’s customers that make adverts go viral and continue to spread the message.... we just need to make it damn good so it gets that far.
A study by Dawes (2008) found general concepts of buyer behaviour and brand performance, such as repertoire buying and double jeopardy also were prevalent in the Australian beer market. Dawes (2008) goes on to suggest that beer advertising should then a) remind customers about the brand (which I’m sure is why beer adverts are quite common), and b) make the brand simpler to purchase. So perhaps online engagement is the right way to go to boost awareness and keep brands at 'top of mind' status, which hopefully leads to more sales.
Something else… I wonder if the guys at Foster’s are worried about cannibalisation for the other beer brands in their portfolio, and the product category overall…?
References:
Dawes, J. (2008). Regularities in Buyer Behaviour and Brand Performance: The Case of Australian Beer. Journal of Brand Management, 15(3), 198-208. doi:10.1057/palgrave.bm.2550099
Smith, T. (2009) The Social Media Revolution. International Journal of Market Research, 51(4), 559-561.
See Also:
Lee. L., Frederick, S., and Ariely, D. (2006) Try It, You'll Like It: The Influence of Expectation, Consumption and Revelation on Preferences for Beer. Psychological Sciences, 17(12), 1054-1058.
Great post, Natasha, and some good questions you're asking. I know that historically each brand at Fosters was seen as a genuine competitor to other Fosters' brands. This ensured they were all kept on their toes, fighting for business amongst each other.
ReplyDeleteThe virals you mentioned in your post all have one thing in common - they are BIG budget productions. The creative elements in them dramatically increase the chance of them going viral.
Well done!
That big ad was a really good one, but I like the slow mo one as well. Perhaps since 05 when the big ad was released, YouToube was still a semi novelty for finding viral ads and now all you see are viral ads.
ReplyDeleteCUB has now been merged with SABMiller so very soon they are no longer part of Fosters, will be interesting to see if there are any SM strategy changes.