BECK’S SOUNDPILS

TitleBECK’S SOUNDPILS
BrandANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV GERMANY HOLDING GMBH
Product/ServiceBECK´S
Entrant SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Munich, GERMANY
Idea Creation SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Munich, GERMANY
Media Placement CARAT Hamburg, GERMANY
Production ELEMENT E FILMPRODUKTION Hamburg, GERMANY
Production 2 EXTREME MUSIK Berlin, GERMANY
Production 3 NEVEREST München, GERMANY
Additional Company PLAN.NET Munich, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Alexander Schill SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Global Chief Creative Officer
Thomas Heyen SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Managing Partner
Markus Kremer SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Managing Partner
Florian Klietz SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Managing Partner
Kristian von Elm SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Management Supervisor
Lars Holling SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Management Supervisor
Sabrina Schwartz SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Senior Account Manager
Mariah Kattmann SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Junior Account Manager
Sebastien Stabenau SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Design Director
Jan-Erik Scheibner SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Senior Copywriter
Melis Adiguezel SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Copywriter
Sine Hansen SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Art Director
Joy Chakravorty SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Copywriter
Sudarshan Waghmare SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Art Director
Philipp Truebiger SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Junior Art Director
Ronnie Patt SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Creative Director Art
Nils-Christian Sperling SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Final Art Specialist
Jeffrey Lisk Element E Filmproduktion Director
Bernd Possardt Element E Filmproduktion Director
Chris McKissick Element E Filmproduktion Director Of Photography
Patrick Volm-Dettenbach Element E Filmproduktion Head of Production
Sebastian Schroeer Element E Filmproduktion Producer
Bernd T. Hoefflin Element E Filmproduktion Producer
Christoph Koehler Neverest Managing Director
Madeliene Pfisterer Neverest Production Assistant

Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

German breweries have to produce beer according to purity law. With hop, malt and water only. We wanted to challenge this and added a new ingredient without changing the recipe: the beer drinkers themselves. Beck’s set up a live-stunt that encouraged direct interaction by applying popular science (“plants grow better when you talk to them”) to hop from a public recording booth connected to speakers in the world’s biggest hop field. People were part in the making of a new beer. Thus, creating an engaging, memorable experience that built a closer bond and brand affinity between Beck’s and its fans.

Background

The brand Beck’s revolves around the rallying cry “You make it legendary”. This basically means putting the brand’s most differentiating ingredient in focus: its consumers. Following that principle, Beck’s wanted to create several experiential brand experiences involving fans all over Germany. With Soundpils, Beck’s wanted its fans to interact with the brand in a way they’ve never done before – giving them the possibility to leave their mark on a new product and connecting real-life experiences with it. All of this eventually needed to come down to a real, straight to stores, limited edition, available on- and offline – to emphasize Beck’s innovative and experiential approach, engaging its exploring target group in an immersive way.

Describe the creative idea

Since 1873, Beck’s has been brewing its worldwide known Pils with nothing but the finest ingredients: hop, malt and yeast. A mix of ingredients that are standardized in Germany, due to the purity law of 1516, which legally forbids to use any other ingredients for beer brewing. So, when we wanted to emphasize the brand’s campaign slogan “You make it legendary” by allowing fans to actually become an ingredient of the beer, we faced a problem. We looked at scientific studies and were reminded of a generally known fact: Plants grow better when you talk to them. This applies to our hops as well! So, we put theory to practice and invited our fans to a real-life experience that eventually lead to a real Beck’s product with a new and refined taste – and dozens of stories and voices behind it.

Describe the strategy

Freedom is a core value of the Beck’s brand. But in order to regain meaningfulness and relevancy in its target group, Beck’s had to redefine freedom – by making it tangible and experienceable. For this purpose, we needed to turn a traditional TVC brand into a non-traditional online entertainment brand. Beck’s new role in this: encourage millennials to make choices without fearing the consequences. Or in short: Go ahead, don’t be afraid and show the world what’s possible – because “You make it legendary”. A credo that calls for real-life participation, creating and doing. The strategy was translated into interactive ideas that put the consumer first and the beer second, showing everyone that “great moments without you, simply aren’t great” and of course, that Beck’s without you, is nothing but a beer.

Describe the execution

To realize this idea, Beck’s had to put a scientific theory to best practice and make it scalable. We took a crew of sound system engineers to Hallertau, Germany, the world’s biggest hop-planting area, and installed hundreds of speakers in the Beck’s field – with heavy machinery. The result? A festival-like sound installation that infused the hop with sound from every angle for the best possible growing effect without interfering with nature too much. On the other hand, we set up an outdoor installation in Berlin that was both visually and audibly connected to the speakers in South Germany: a mobile, noise-isolated speaker cabin with live-recording function.

List the results

The idea resulted in a three-minute documentary that created 29 million social media contacts and has been viewed more than 8 million times in only two weeks, driving engagement on the Beck’s Facebook and Instagram channels. The video itself, despite its three-minute length, has been viewed 2.17 minutes on average with 27 % of the audience watching the entire documentary. But most importantly: we created a brand new, real product, of which the consumer became the key ingredient. The Beck’s Soundpils hop has been harvested and brewed into a beer with provable, refreshing new aroma. Bottles have been sold both in stores and online. Last but not least, we sent a sixpack-mailing to almost every participant and instantly mailed them their “sound act” video footage by mail.