Title	THE NATIONAL DEBATE
Brand	LEFFE
Product/Service	LEFFE
Category	G04. Social Behaviour & Cultural Insight
Entrant	BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation	BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Media Placement	VIZEUM Brussels, BELGIUM
PR	OONA BENELUX Antwerp, BELGIUM
Production	DEMONSTR8 Brussels, BELGIUM

Name	Company	Position
Jan Dejonghe	BBDO Belgium	Creative Director
Gilles André	BBDO Belgium	Creative
Ariane Floderer	BBDO Belgium	Creative
Daniel Schots	BBDO Belgium	Chief Commercial Officer
Antoine Bouvy	BBDO Belgium	Account Director
Ward Braeckevelt	BBDO Belgium	Account Manager
Jan Van Brakel	BBDO Belgium	Strategic planner
Kim Leunen	BBDO Belgium	Performance & experience planning lead
Michiel Dirickx	BBDO Belgium	Digital Campaign Executive
Jorrit Michiels	BBDO Belgium	Graphic Designer
Patricia Van De Kerckhove	BBDO Belgium	Head of RTV
Renée Vermeire	BBDO Belgium	RTV Producer & Art Buyer
Silke Ricour	BBDO Belgium	RTV Producer
Dejvi Vandeveire	BBDO Belgium	Videographer
Jasper Vanhauwaert	BBDO Belgium	Videographer
Valentin Taminiau	BBDO Belgium	Editor & Motion Designer
Jonas Van Gestel	theblackbox	Motion & video producer
Nicolas Van Poeck	BBDO Belgium	Sound Producer
Mathieu Schots	BBDO Belgium	Sound Engineer
Andy Vandeborne	BBDO Belgium	Copywriter
Siglinda Paquay	BBDO Belgium	Copywriter
David Vanderbiest	BBDO Belgium	Final Art
Glenn Rongé	BBDO Belgium	Director of Data
Karlien Fabré	BBDO Belgium	Digital Project Manager
Jonathan Pardon	BBDO Belgium	Digital Development Director
Orry Van Den Abbeele	BBDO Belgium	Content Manager
Jérôme De Boysère	BBDO Belgium	Front-end developer
Karine Uytterhoeven	BBDO Belgium	Traffic Director
Monique Van Moer	BBDO Belgium	Traffic Manager
Sven Rosius	Demonstr8	Director of Strategy & Client Services
Arno Geets	Demonstr8	Strategic Planner
Stein Watteeuw	Demonstr8	Project Director
Sara Holbrecht	Demonstr8	Senior Project Manager
Zaja Ketels	Demonstr8	Account Executive
Melwin Koopmans	Oona Antwerp	Managing Director
Audrey Verhulst	Oona Antwerp	Senior Account Manager
Amélie Waterschoot	Oona Antwerp	Account Manager
Mathijs Vanduffel	Vizeum	Account Manager
Laurent Massart	Vizeum	Account Manager
Elise Fonck	Vizeum	Digital Planner
Virginie Verleysen	Vizeum	Social Expert
Arnaud Hanset	AB Inbev	Marketing Director
Mauranne Temot	AB Inbev	High-End Marketing Manager
Alexis Meeus	AB Inbev	Senior Brand Manager Leffe
Olivier De Pooter	AB Inbev	Digital Manager BU Central
Laure Stuyck	AB Inbev	External Communication Manager

Why is this work relevant for Direct?

Following the latest Belgian national elections, the complex political landscape deeply divided the Dutch-speaking North and the French-speaking South of the country. This caused relations between the people living North and South of the language border to be at an all-time low. As a brand that supports meaningful discussions, Leffe decided to go for a direct approach. We invited Flemings and Walloons living close to the border for a face-to-face at one of the 1000 tables set up on the 400km language border between North and South, and asked them to debate various topical issues … over a Leffe.

Background

Leffe is the No. 1 "tasting-beer" in Belgium in terms of volume and penetration. Yet the beer is perceived as being too intense for summer occasions. Consumers often choose a lager beer instead of a Leffe. This causes Leffe sales to drop during summer, while sales of lagers rise. For this summer campaign we had a double objective: - from a business point of view we needed to increase the sales of Leffe during the summer months by stealing market share from lager beers. - our marketing objective was to increase the awareness and consideration of Leffe in the summer months. To do so, we needed to create a relevant and unique summer positioning for Leffe, starting from its warm and welcoming DNA (the monks in the Leffe Abbey welcomed pilgrims from around the world). Besides selling beer, the higher purpose was to stimulate politicians to form a national government.

Describe the creative idea (30% of vote)

Leffe stands for meaningful conversations. This was translated to the summer positioning for Leffe as a beer to support in-depth conversations on the Belgian terraces. During the summer of 2019, the results of the national elections were the hottest topic on those terraces. Belgium, a highly politically-divided country, broke the world record for longest time without a government in 2011 (541 days) and the current discussions proved to become even more difficult. Leffe decided to encourage dialogue between the regions by launching a national debate: we organized the longest ever terrace along the 400km of the language border, bringing together 1000 Flemings and 1000 Walloons to debate on 10 highly topical topics and showing politicians that they too should considering compromising, over a Leffe.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Leffe is – just like other abbey beers – perceived as a ‘heavy’ speciality beer. And this is not what the Belgian target audience (male, 18-54) is looking for during the hot summer weather, preferring lager to a speciality beer. To increase interest in Leffe during the hottest time of the year, Leffe needed to map out its own territory, away from the classic lager occasions like festivals, soccer, parties, … Starting from the unique DNA of the brand (supporting meaningful conversations), we decided to establish the Belgian terraces as the perfect Leffe territory (installing a “Terrace = Leffe” reflex) and created a campaign that sparked debate on the hottest topic of the summer of 2019: politics. In this way, we brought together the proposition of the brand with the ideal location for consuming the beer.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

In August, Leffe invited Flemings and Walloons to participate in the National Debate by booking one of the 1000 tables on the language border. Highly targeted lead gen ads sparked interest and gave people the opportunity to register. We brought together a Fleming and a Walloon to a specific table, and informed them of the specific coordinates by mail. Over the course of 5 days at the end of August, 200 tables were placed at a different part of the border, giving as many people as possible the chance to participate. Each table contained a link to a smartphone accessible online platform, with highly topical statements to spark the debate, as developed by political scientist Dave Sinardet. Each table was served with two Leffe beers. Analysis shows that on average a compromise on the 10 questions was reached in just 17 minutes.

List the results (30% of vote)

While the total beer market is decreasing in Belgium (-1.6% total volume in 2019 VS 2018), Leffe achieved excellent sales, and positive brand and campaign results: 1/ Sales: • + 13% sales for August (month of our campaign) and September combined. • Consumers changed behaviour: the Belgians consumed +3% more Leffe in August 2019 compared to the same period the year before. 2/ Brand: • Consideration of Leffe as a first choice beer increased by 1% in August. • We increased our total awareness by +1.6%, and our top of mind awareness with +1.5%. Not bad for a (in Belgium) well-known brand like Leffe. 3/ Campaign: • 24M impressions in a country with only 11.4M inhabitants. 69% of population reached: 4.8M Belgians on an active population of 6.9M (18-64yo) • Over 31K engagements across our different posts. • On average, participants came to a compromise in 17 min.

Please tell us about the social behaviour and / or cultural insights that inspired your campaign

Though Belgium has become more and more politically divided between North and South, Flemings and Walloons are not so different: they’re both kind, understanding and respectful of one another, and love having endless debates about everything going from sports, climate and religion, but most of all: they all love to drink a beer. So when recent elections fragmented the political landscape even further, we decided to unite Flemings and Walloons over their favourite drink to do what they do best: have a debate over a Leffe, in the hope of inspiring Belgian politicians to start a dialogue with one another.