Effective campaigns create successful events

Beers are to celebrations, like hops are to barley – when paired successfully; the outcome can be beautiful and gratifying. Much like the art of beer brewing itself, these celebrations require careful thought and timely planning in order to be truly memorable.With the market for alcoholic beverages increasingly being crowded by new entrants, providing beer consumers with the ideal drinking experience has become more of a challenge today than ever before.Of this diverse pool of beer consumers are the millenials who are constantly plugged in and in the know, easily sharing their brand experiences like social currency.In order for any brand not to lose significance in the fast-paced lives of this growing majority, consumer touch-points have to be big, brave and focused. These are three crucial elements that Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore (APBS) emulates when building affinity with the masses through novel and ground-breaking events.Creating immersive experiencesAll too often in the marketing world, advertising campaigns remain just that, or social media executions are confined within the digital realm. The best campaigns however, should not have an evident radial point.The importance of integrated 360 campaigns cannot be overlooked in our hyper-connected day and age, where brand messages only stick to consumers when they are exposed to it seamlessly through their daily interactions with editorial content, advertisements across media channels and most importantly, strong social media enablement.An example of such a campaign was held around the introduction of Guinness’ new Draught in a Bottle (GDIB) variant into the local market.A sleek advertising campaign hitting relevant media outlets distributed to Singapore’s trendiest spots was supported by an effective public relations campaign that simultaneously promoted buzz around the upcoming launch event.At the same time, a Facebook contest ran live on Guinness Singapore’s page, encouraging fans to submit the most creative entries and complete the sentence “Guinness is as smooth as…”. Five winners were then shortlisted to try their hand at setting the Guinness World Record for the “Longest Bar Slide” on behalf of the brand on the day of the event, a feat achieved by a fan who slid the new GDIB 14.1 metres down the  purpose built bar slide.The idea behind the “Longest Bar Slide” and its conceptual representation of the smooth finish of the legendary Guinness brew was communicated and explained to the guests who attended the unique launch event as well.As is evident, a 360 campaign such as this is integral to the success of any brand’s event to engage fans though novel and ground-breaking experiences, or in this case, to bring luxury to their everyday beer occasions.The campaign for GDIB has garnered industry recognition by bagging a MARKIES award for “Best Use of Outdoor” as well as an Effie’s Gold, one of only 4 gold medals awarded from a record 77 entries across industries this year.The writer is Rene de Monchy, head of Marketing for Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore.