LONG LIVE THE LOCAL

TitleLONG LIVE THE LOCAL
BrandBRITISH BEER & PUB ALLIANCE
Product/ServiceCAMPAIGN TO CUT THE BEER TAX
Category G01. Integrated Campaign Led by Direct
Entrant HAVAS LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation HAVAS LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement HAVAS MEDIA London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production STINK FILMS London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 2 ELECTRIC THEATRE COLLECTIVE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 3 LGA LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 4 750MPH London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Ben Mooge Havas London Executive Creative Director
Ben Mooge Havas London Executive Creative Director
Lynsey Atkin Havas London Creative Director
Wil Maxey Havas London Creative
Elliott White Havas London Creative
Alex Tizard Havas London Copywriter
Jonathan Rands Havas London Art Director
Patrick Cahill Havas London Joint Head of Production
Adam Henderson Havas London Producer
Jen Black Havas London Managing Director
Tom Trevelyan Havas London Account Director
Natasha King Havas London Assistant Producer
Jen Black Havas London Managing Partner
Jahney Smith Havas London Account Manager
Ravi Matharu Havas London Strategy Director
Tom Trevelyan Havas London Senior Account Director
Matthew Paris Havas London Account Director
Adam Henderson Havas London Producer
Natasha King Havas London Assistant Producer
Sophie Fletcher Havas London Senior Account Manager
Claire Petzal Havas London Account Manager
Sarah Wells Havas London Producer
Dan Scheers Havas London Designer
Emily Allen Havas London Account Manager
Clare Hutchinson Havas London Executive Strategy Director
Dan Davies Havas London Junior Designer
Tess Hulme Havas Media Business Director
Ravi Matharu Havas London Strategy Director
Lucy Kelly Pulse Films Executive Producer
Emma Gibbons Havas Media Account Director
Graham Kenchington Havas Media Account Manager
George Saunders Pulse Films Producer
Ben Fordesmen Pulse Films Director of Photography
Ellie Johnson Ten Three Editor
Billy Mead Ten Three Editor
Anthony Moore Factory Sound
Josh Robinson Time Based Arts Post Producer
Jo Gutteridge Time Based Arts Post Producer

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

The Long Live the Local campaign directly targeted a specific audience with a clear and concise call-to-action and demanded an urgent response. We set about creating a movement all pub-goers and pub owners could rally behind encouraging them to sign the petition and help cut beer tax. In just 14 weeks (the entire length of the campaign) response to the Long Live the Local campaign has dwarfed all previous activity. For the whole of 2017 combined industry body campaigns delivered just 15,000 responses. We notched over 116,000 petition signatures and over 48,000 people wrote to their MP.

Background

Despite serving the country for generations, our pubs are under threat from a range of pressures, and right now they are closing at a rate of 3 per day; if this continues, within 10 years we could lose a quarter of Britain’s pubs. One of the biggest pressure’s pubs face is a growing tax burden, with 1 in every £3 spent in pubs going straight to the taxman. This is simply not sustainable. We needed to launch a new long-term campaign to persuade the British Government to cut beer tax – this year or next - despite the fact that he has already committed not to do so. The key KPIs for our campaign were maximising petition signatures and the number of emails that constituents sent to MPs.

Describe the creative idea

Long Live The Local. A rallying cry for everything we believe in; our beer, our pubs, our community and our culture. A new movement celebrating the life, vitality, and the key role that pubs play. One that doubles up as a call on government to cut beer tax. A brand new idea. A rallying cry for everything we believe in: LONG LIVE THE LOCAL. To make it feel like it was made by the people for the people, we dressed it in: PROTEST-INSPIRED VISUAL IDENTITY A shorthand graphic tied our integrated campaign together. Our pint glass turned exclamation mark became AN ICON FOR OUR MOVEMENT A clear simple call to action: SIGN THE PETITION TO CUT BEER TAX Each execution delivered our strategy with maximum impact via a simple narrative structure: Evoke emotion, raise jeopardy, drive action.

Describe the strategy

We completely rethought the previous strategy. Different target audience. Different messaging. 1. Targeting Research showed The Chancellor is not swayed by traditional lobbying campaigns. We made people, not politicians, our primary target audience. 2. MESSAGING We analysed the architecture of successful modern movements and applied it to our campaign. HEART.HEAD.HANDS. HEART: Make it emotional. And personal. A few pence off a pint would not motivate people to take action. So we reframed the problem, positioning beer tax as a direct threat to the Great British Pub. HEAD: Give people ammunition to justify the cause. In consumer research, one stat won overwhelmingly: “Every day, three pubs close their doors for good”. This one sentence created real jeopardy. HANDS: Make it easy for people to act. We needed as many people as possible to sign a petition. To drive this behaviour, we had to make the process of responding easy.

Describe the execution

A new brand for a new movement. A rallying cry for everything we believe in: LONG LIVE THE LOCAL. Our brand-response film describes The Pub as “Our culture. Our identity. The life of the village. The heart of the town. The soul of the country”, then delivers our rational punch. Highly emotional. Highly responsive. Our long-copy press ad does the same. In-pub activation kits enabled pub-owners to play their part. Posters, coasters, table toppers, window stickers drove response at the most relevant time and place. Throughout the campaign social media promoted our film and local pubs. A massive OOH campaign dominated the country accompanied by PR influencer activity. Ease of response drove the design of our mobile-first website. A three-click process enabled visitors to sign the petition and auto-generate an email to their local MP.

List the results

We set three key metrics: Petition Signatures, Emails to MPs and, ultimately…persuade the British Government to change its planned policy of increasing beer duty. MOST IMPORTANTLY… our movement changed the British Government’s mind. On 29 October, the Chancellor announced to the nation that he was Freezing Beer Tax. Our Long Live the Local campaign created a NATIONAL CONVERSATION. Response rates dwarfed all previous activity. For the whole of 2017, all combined industry body campaigns delivered just 15k responses. Our campaign delivered over 164,000 responses in just 14 weeks: 116,794 petition signatures 48,160 emails written to MPs – an average of 77 emails sent to each British MP. Our strategic rethink has delivered 1100% more responses than last year - eleven times the response of previous campaign.