Title	THE "GEGEN BRAUNE FLASCHEN"-BOTTLE
Brand	BECK’S
Product/Service	BECK’S
Category	E04. Real-time Response
Entrant	SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Munich, GERMANY
Idea Creation	SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Munich, GERMANY
Media Placement	CARAT Hamburg, GERMANY
Production	ELEMENT E FILMPRODUKTION Hamburg, GERMANY
Production 2	ELEMENT E FILMPRODUKTION Hamburg, GERMANY
Production 3	EXTREME MUSIK Berlin, GERMANY
Additional Company	PLAN.NET Munich, GERMANY

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
Dennis Fritz	SERVICEPLAN GERMANY	Senior Motion Designer
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

Background

Summer 2018: While Beck’s, Germany’s most popular beer brand, calls to a label design contest on its bottles, major media channels and the social web spread a disturbing photo from Eastern Germany, symbolic of the right-wing protests that turned violent that year. Unmistakably, in the middle of the photo: A Beck’s promo bottle. A PR disaster that has Germans suddenly asking themselves: “Are all Beck’s drinkers Nazis?”

Describe the strategy

The idea was the pinnacle of a nationwide Beck’s campaign that called all of Germany to participate in a label design contest. For that purpose, the brand took away its most meaningful brand characteristic, the front label, replacing it with a bright-green “no label”. Giving way to the ideas and designs of its fans and everyone that has an opinion to express – the campaign’s mantra being: “You make it legendary.” This goes in line with the brand’s heritage and overall strategy: Being an export beer by DNA, Beck’s fosters open-mindedness and tolerance ever since and encourages people to explore a world beyond their own horizon.

Describe the execution

Just two hours after the photo from Eastern Germany took over major media channels and the social feed, Beck’s answered with the pre-release of a fan’s design-label on Facebook. A simple zero-budget posting that caused a massive response rate, capturing what the whole nation felt at that time, infuriating right-wing politicians and creating a debate on social media. We used this momentum to go even one step further: We made the virtual bottle real and brought it into nationwide retail. Over 2,5 million times.

List the results

Our post made the right-wing party and others boycott Beck’s, but we expressed what all of Germany felt that Summer. The label generated more than 505.000 interactions and became reality – in form of more than 2,5 million bottles that were sold out in no time all over Germany. The big social media buzz motivated Beck’s to extend its label design contest. Within only one month (August), the campaign generated 507.526 interactions and 11.499.265 media impressions. We reached 339.803 people, created 8.107 likes and more than 1.000 shares – with a single post and zero media budget. The idea marked the first time a brand spoke up to the cultural tensions and violent events in Germany in the Summer of 2018. Without a filter and through the eyes of the most important people: the real consumers out there that care about what society they want to live in.