POSTPONE YOUR BIRTHDAY

TitlePOSTPONE YOUR BIRTHDAY
BrandJUPILER
Product/ServiceJUPILER
Category A01. Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Entrant BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Production BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Arnaud Pitz BBDO Belgium Creative Director
Sebastien De Valck BBDO Belgium Creative Director
Ariane Floderer BBDO Belgium Art Director / Creative
Gilles André BBDO Belgium Copywriter / Creative
Quentin Donckerwolcke BBDO Belgium Account Executive
Lore Desmet BBDO Belgium Account Director
Eric Leurquin BBDO Belgium Design Director
Piet Boeykens BBDO Belgium Graphic Designer
Elena Haniotakis BBDO Belgium Digital / UX designer
Matthias Andriessen BBDO Belgium Digital Developper
Jonathan Pardon BBDO Belgium Digital Developper
Wouter Has BBDO Belgium Digital Project Director
Martijn Beckers BBDO Belgium Dutch/English Copywriter
Aurélie Russanowski BBDO Belgium Brand Strategist
Jesse Donkor BBDO Belgium Strategist
Karine Uytterhoeven BBDO Belgium Traffic Manager
Monique Van Moer BBDO Belgium Traffic Manager
Josse Peremans AB Inbev Marketing Manager BELUX
Maxime Pudzeis AB Inbev Brand manager
Olivier De Pooter AB Inbev Digital Brand Manager

Background

Celebrating your birthday during lockdown due to COVID-19, that sucks. That means no party, no friend and no toast in real life to properly celebrate your birthday with the ones you love… That’s why Belgium’s biggest beer brand, Jupiler, came to the rescue. Jupiler didn’t have a specific target, but they knew that they were in a crunch. The Covid crisis had slashed their budgets (including media), but at the same time there was rarely a more important time to take action to regain some of the lost beer sales and show a positive brand image during the pandemic. Not in the least to support their partners: the bars, closed during lockdown. In short, a briefing with zero media budget and the bare minimum in terms of production budget, yet with high expectations when it came to taking responsibilities and giving Belgians hope in these unprecedented times.

Describe the strategy

As the biggest beer brand in a nation famous for its lagers, Jupiler targets broad: LDA (legal drinking age - 16) and over. Jupiler also built its brand around responsibly sharing with friends. The joy of beer as social occasion. Therefore, we needed something universal & appealing to such a broad demographic. And should entice it to share with friends - and drive them to the bars. So, what’s more universal than a birthday and the disappointment of not having anyone around during that time? We deliberately built a platform that was extremely low threshold, self-explanatory, easy-to-use and low in overall production cost. We then made sure that the reward was sufficiently high – 10 free pints of Jupiler – so we could place our bet on the earned media aspect of social media: enticing people to share, forward, comment, tag someone who had their birthday in March or April.

Describe the execution

On March 14, Belgium entered into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 31, Jupiler launched “Postpone your Birthday” via an organic post on its Facebook page. Offering to all Belgians celebrating their birthday during lockdown the opportunity to postpone it until after it. On www.jupilerbirthday.be, Belgians born in March and April could enter their real birthday date and prove it with their ID card (by uploading a picture on our platform). Then, they chose a new birthday date, after the lockdown. As a gift, participants received 10 free pints of Jupiler – via a redeemable coupon in their confirmation email – to drink in their favourite bar, once the lockdown is over! So they can go celebrate with all their friends, making up for all the lost hugs and cheers. And they support the bar owners by doing so, as Jupiler pays them back all offered beers.

List the results

In less than 24 hours, the activation hit an organic reach like Jupiler had never seen before in Belgium: - 413K people reached (previous best post = 273k in a week) - 6.3K comments (previous best post = 1.4k) In total, Jupiler convinced 95.312 Belgians to postpone their birthday. That’s 13% of Belgian adults born in March & April. Among which more than 40.000 in less than 48 hours. Main national media talked about the activation, generating €458.597 of earned media. All this with zero media budget. With 11.317 likes, shares and comments, and 99% of positive sentiment, it’s clear that Belgians were waiting for a positive brand communication in these unprecedented times. Oh, and we almost forgot... AB Inbev liked the idea so much that they decided to run it as well in other markets: in South Africa (for Castle), Colombia (for Poker) and Canada (for Palm Bay). Cheers!