An ad that 720,000 people watched willingly – and intently.
Only 15% of people will watch an ad on YouTube for more than 6 seconds. So why on Earth would we build a campaign for a non-alcoholic beer around a two-minute ad? Well, we believed in it. And then: more than a half of the targeted audience happily watched the ad to the end.
The brief: Tell drivers that Birell is 100% alcohol-free.
There is zero alcohol limit for drivers in Slovakia. As some non-alcoholic beers contain residual alcohol, many drivers are still skeptical about them. But Birell is different and truly non-alcoholic. So how to convince drivers that there is no need to worry about alcohol with Birell?
We were inspired by something every driver experiences. The breath test.
Then, we left the breath test to the experts – a brass wind band.
Together with the brass band Textilanka we re-created a well-known Slovak song and made it about passing a breath test after drinking Birell. In the video, we used a unique and humorous green screen visual style which is often used by brass bands and folk groups. This style distinguished us from the competition and allowed us to show that you can drink Birell safely wherever you are.
Unusual media strategy: Two minutes in primetime.
Admit it: it would be a shame for someone to miss such a hit. That's why we aired the spot in primetime on one of the biggest TV stations in Slovakia. In its full length. Two minutes. The reactions were positive right from the start. And we had more to offer.
Campaign variety = Memorability = Success.
After kicking the door out, it was time to show the true power of the concept we created for Birell.
We adapted the song to many formats to reach people almost everywhere. We took the notoriously known melody and tailor-made the lyrics to fit the context in which people listened to it.
- Sponsoring a radio traffic service was a simple but very efficient method to get the message across to the people who interested us most - drivers.
- Municipal radios are still a strong communication channel in Slovak villages and brass band songs are often played before announcements to get the locals’ attention. So we played our song in 100 villages.
- Our partner supermarkets have their own corporate radios, so we used them to inspire drivers to buy Birell right in the store.
- Hearing some brass band music while waiting for a movie at the cinema can really take you by surprise - and so that’s what we did. We also reminded the audience of the principles of decent behavior in the cinema.
- Senzi TV is a Slovak television dedicated to folklore, string, and brass music. We couldn't miss our chance there, could we.
But what surprised us the most was how people reacted online. In a world where the average ad viewership is 6 seconds, we've released the full, two-minute version – and yet more than 50% of people have watched it till the end. The music by Textilanka obviously captured the hearts of the public. That was also evidenced by high viewability and organic numbers. In total, Slovaks have seen our ads more than 1.2 million times. The best part? Only 40% was paid reach – the remaining 60% was organic virality, where people played the ad on their own or shared it.
Okay. But what about business results?
We managed to turn the success of the ad into proper business results:
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+13%YoY sales increase
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60%of views were organic
Birell became the fastest growing non-alcoholic beer in Slovakia. But most importantly, we fulfilled the brief one hundred percent. Thanks to one very infectious traditional song we replaced old prejudice with a new truth: with Birell, you won’t ever fail your breath test.
