Why four?

Beer advertising is fascinating, the way that 'brand attributes' are draped over a beer that is largely indistinguishable from its competitors so as to make it more desirable. Essentially the idea is for you to identify with the product in a way that it is seen to reflect with your hopes, dreams and social aspirations. What fascinates me more is that this process is so visceral and so well done that even understanding this process doesn't stop it from happening on a subconscious level. We all have beers that just push the right buttons for us - which have nothing to do with how they taste. But why do beer ads usually have four blokes in them? All is answered here (to cut to the chase, skip ahead to 3:38)...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPUkfcEdFFM&start=20&autoplay=1]

Anyway, now that you know why four blokes, you have the chance to be one of them:

XXXX gives Aussie blokes a golden opportunity

13 November 2009: XXXX GOLD has begun the search for the stars of its new television advertising campaign, and this time it could be YOU! As well as inviting professional actors to audition, the nation’s second biggest selling beer brand is giving real Aussie men the chance to live the dream by inviting anyone who thinks he’s got what it takes to apply for a role.

Four men will be cast to play a group of mates who’ll be depicted living the ‘XXXX GOLD good life’ in a range of different scenarios.

“We’re putting out the call for ordinary Aussie blokes, over the age of 25, who enjoy drinking a couple of XXXX GOLD with their mates, and reckon they’ve got what it takes to star in a TV commercial,” said Andrew Coates, Marketing Director, XXXX.

“The new series of ads will be classic XXXX GOLD. It’s about living the good life – a reflection of simpler times and enjoying a beer or two in the company of good friends.

“Previous ads, such as the ‘Jacko’ campaign and the most recent ‘boat building’ series, have been a huge part of making XXXX the Aussie icon we know and love.

“We want the new campaign to celebrate the brand’s core values – mateship, being social and down-to-earth – which is why we’ve opened up the casting to real Australian men,” said Andrew.

Natalie Hall, Director of Natalie Hall Management, who is managing public applications for the XXXX GOLD campaign, said, “This is an opportunity of a lifetime for the right person as they’ll be paid as a professional actor and I dare say it’ll be some of the most fun they’ll ever have at work!

“Having a part in these ads won’t just make you popular amongst your mates and at the pub, you’ll be recognised nationally. Whilst this sounds glamorous, this is a professional acting role, which will involve long hours and you’ll need to be able to perform with the best of them.

“We’re looking for very definite skills – some natural acting talent is a must and comic timing is absolutely essential. We want the best men for the job, whether they’re professional actors or raw talent.

“The ads are quintessentially Australian and the actors will be playing characters who are not unlike themselves so there’s every chance that could be you or your son, brother, neighbour or boyfriend!”

Men who are over the age of 25 and are interested in applying should send a photograph of themselves and contact details, including name and phone number, to Natalie Hall Management at competition@nataliehall.com or call (07) 3871 0906. Photos do not need to be taken professionally; they can be simple digital photos.

Applicants will only be contacted if they’re chosen for an audition. Candidates will need to pay their own expenses to get to the audition, which will be held in Brisbane and Townsville the week commencing 23rd November.

Successful actors must be free to film during the week 15th – 19th December.

A fruity fairytale...

Thanks to Prof. Pilsner for tipping me off to this one that had me running straight away to the beer fridge for the  bottle of Jamieson Raspberry Ale that I had been meaning to try but just hadn't gotten to.

This ad is a classic...and accurate. As first this beer is an explosion of raspberry aroma that smells almost like a raspberry lolly. That is until the first taste and the raspberry tartness hits the palate and tells you that this is no mass market, sugar-soaked lolly drink. It's a fruit beer with balls and, as the poster says, anything but sweet. A perfect summer refresher (for those who don't need a 6-pack of blandness to feel refreshed on a summer's day).

Who cares if it looks as if Disney will shut it down (or has already) this sucker's going viral and hopefully the beer will too. I'm not sure who comes out ahead, the brewery or The Foundry. Both will do well out of this 'scandal' but either way I've just enjoyed a great beer and a good laugh. Well played lads.

No Heineken, no sense of humour

It's probably because they "develop their portfolio of brands" rather than "brew beer" that makes the multinational malt-derived alcohol companies such a humourless bunch, but this is pretty heavy-handed and petty even by their standards.

Heineken cracks down on tiny Swiss "Keineken"

(AP) – 10 hours ago

AMSTERDAM — Swiss police have seized 1,000 bottles of locally made "Keineken" beer after the Dutch beer giant Heineken NV complained its brand was being infringed.

The name "Keineken" appears to be a pun in German meaning "No Heineken."

Heineken spokesman Jeroen Breuer said Tuesday a judge in the Swiss canton of Obwalden ordered police to seize the brew after agreeing Keineken infringed the Heineken brand.

Breuer said Heineken doesn't consider the size of its opponents when its brand is being misused.

"Whether the name is a joke or a way of getting publicity — those are questions for them to answer," he said.

A note on Keineken's Web site complains that foreign companies have "swallowed" all Switzerland's independent brewers.

"Our name says it all: Keineken."

While I'm at it with Heineken, what is it with this ad:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-NfrBgYIEQ]

Apart from creeping me out, I'm not quite sure what it says about their beer...or about women. I'm gratified to see that I'm not alone.

At least Fosters do make truly great ads.

And before I finish with Heineken, these are an interesting read too...

Crown Ambassador reserved....

Update

The International Beer Club has just issued a clarification (??) about their newsletter entry reproduced below. I have included this first to make sure that their apology is read...As I said in my initial post, no one else I spoke to reported the same conditions...it seems that they were never made. Still, apart from the deletions, the comments on Crown itself are still pretty relevant...

Shame on us!

Unfortunately during the editing process (and perhaps caught up in the spirit of the name and shame), some of last weeks newsletter ended up on the cutting room floor, and some of the intended messages were "lost in translation", and subsequently what ended up in your inbox was quite different (or converse) to what was intended. We'd like to clarify a few of the finer points:

As written, the statement "[Ambassador] is not available to bottlestores without a purchase of 5 pallets of Crown Lager" is false. This was only requested of some small independent stores that were not already selling a substantial volume of the beer. We apologise to Fosters for the mistake, and hope that in the future better communication (both with Fosters and within our small team) will prevent any further drama.

We entirely appreciate what we perceive to be Fosters position, and, despite last weeks comments, believe that 12 months in a display cabinet is an excellent use of the visually stunning Ambassador - though we would prefer someone was drinking it!

Original Post

A couple of posts ago I talked up the Crown Ambassador Reserve as being a beer worth buying...I still hold to that ( I still think it shows that when they want to Fosters can brew interesting beer) but I received a copy of the International Beer Shop's newsletter this week, where they said this...

Shame on you Fosters!

Crown Ambassador, the beer that (according to Fosters) pioneered and defined luxury beer in the Australian market is not available to bottlestores without a purchase of 5 pallets of Crown Lager - posing the question: luxury lager or simply a subversive marketing strategy? Our apologies to any members that had requested the beer (this year and last), we simply couldn't convince Fosters that we deserved any. I guess to Foster's credit they did give a lot away to celebrities and sports/media stars - a better investment/advertisement than having it sit for 12 months on a store shelf (and yes we've heard of some stores with last year's vintage still in stock).

Thankfully, we have plenty of other limited release strong beers, all crafted with passion and without any input from any marketing department. Those interested in the style can check out (in no particular order):

- Mikkeller Big Worse

- Rogue XS Old Crustacean Barleywine (+ the rest of the Rogue XS range)

- Nogne O #100

- BrewDog Isle of Arran Imperial Stout

- St Ambroise Vintage Ale

- Fullers Vintage Ale

- Murray's Anniversary Ale

- Unibroue 17

- Cooper's Vintage Ale

I have checked with a couple of smaller Brisbane retailers and they didn't have the same conditions put on them, so I'm not sure how widespread this requirement is, but I'm not surprised. Even though CAR is a pretty good beer - and a very impressive gift (two very different things) - it is still a marketing exercise. IBS  pose the question, "luxury lager or simply a subversive marketing strategy?" Why can't it be both? Six thousand bottles of a beer is (excuse the pun) extremely small beer for a brewer producing billions of stubbies a year, even one selling for $70 a bottle. They do it as an attempt to put a halo around the Crown brand, which has diminished greatly over the last half decade.

Ten years ago there was what I called the "Crown ceiling" for most restaurants' beer lists, where the most expensive beer on the menu was pretty much Crown. You couldn't put another more expensive beer on the menu because it wouldn't sell. The general appreciation for beer -  or at least the perception of beer - was that Crown was as good as you could get in Australia so you couldn't charge more for a craft beer or an import.

Tastes have changed, and you will regularly see beers costing more on a menu these days. I'm not sure that you can say that the average drinker is much more informed though because the beers that have broken the Crown ceiling include international brands brewed under licence such as Stella and Becks, but that just shows how important marketing is. Crown Ambassador Reserve is designed to give the ailing Crown brand a lift - and if that means requiring retailers to buy huge amounts of the regular Crown, then that's what Fosters will do. After all, beer is their business and marketing is central to that business...although the business Fosters is in is growing their business by selling shitloads of beer, not building a sustainable business - and hopefully making a living - by brewing great beer, which is the modest ambition of many of the smaller brewers springing up.

Mind you, that's where Foster's strategy of requiring mass purchases of Crown may hurt them. If it is common practice, there are going to be retailers all over the place with their storages stocked with Crown. Lagers of that type don't last very long and so the beer either needs to be sold - and that means discounts - or it will sit around unrefrigerated until sold, which could see it age. Even worse, if the retailer's storage space is really full the pallets will be pulled out of the storage in the morning to sit around in the sun until close up time when it will be wheeled back in - a common sight at the big liquor retailers. Either way, discounting or aged, stale beer will hurt the brand further...but that's never really been the concern of accountants and marketers  - after getting a pat on the back for a short-term lift in sales - will just come up with a clever way to try and mend its tarnished crown in 6 or 12 months time. Watch out for specials on Crown in the coming months - something that you never saw in the past as Fosters maintained its "premium" branding.

All that said, I think I'd pretty much prefer any of the beers that the International Beer Shop recommended too. But I also know a lot of dads who will be more impressed - and more thankful - for "a $70 bottle of Crownie" because to them it has more cachet - and a nicer box - than some Scandinavian beer that he can't pronounce. But that's the power of marketing for you. And that is something that Fosters does very well.

Still, if Mikkeller Big Worse or Unibroue 17 mean more to you than Crown - you're my kind of beer drinker. You should check out IBS if you haven't already...

Ads without people?

Fosters hasn’t quite stopped making beer, but they obviously want to focus on what they do best. They have just appointed Sydney-based ad agency Droga5, creators of The Regulars and the controversial, cynical and extremely successful Raise A Glass campaign, to handle advertising for Crown Lager and Cascade in addition to VB. Expect to watch more advertising brilliance in the future…while you drink something else.

Fortunately, they don't advertise in Russia which prohibits the use of people in beer ads.

In 2004, the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service prohibited the use of human or animal images in beer commercials and limited the time that beer advertising can be shown on television to between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

In May, however, the regulator complained that the beer industry was circumventing the law by using images implying the presence of people without showing the people themselves — such as clinking beer glasses and off-screen voices conversing.

Now obviously advertisers use people in ads for a reason. They want to establish a brand identity that their target market will indentif ywith, and will hopefully prompt beer drinkers to think they will look as cool, wealthy or as discerning as the pretty and handsome young things in the ad and hopefully encourge them to buy that brand of beer to cloak themselves in those brand attributes. While this in all probability does have a flow on effect to make drinking seem cool as well, I'm not quite sure that that's the biggest problem that alcohol faces. It's just one of the easiest for government's to tackle and to be seen doing something to pander to the ever louder voices of prohibition. You will still have endless images of footballers celebrating with beer (and the scandalous stories of how the night ended up in the papers for weeks to come), champagne corks popping at Formula One trophy presentations, cocktail parties in the social pages and so on and so on.

Drinking and any problems surrounding it is a huge issue and Government's just tend to distort the problem with half-arsed bans like this one.

I enjoyed the quote from Konstantin Garanin, creative director of the unusually  named Reclamafia advertising agency.

“If we’re banned from using people’s voices and other human-related stuff, we’ll just show more beautiful landscapes and flowing water,” he said.

They gotta pay for the ads somehow...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIdDLWNtfHA] The play it well Fosters. Their new beer ad was a huge hit (and deservedly so…though I am reminded of this story from The Onion and think that maybe Fosters should quit the beer market to concentrate on ads).

But in all the fuss about the ad for the beer, they managed to squeeze out a media release announcing they have again reduced the alcohol content in VB…

VB Remains Great Value

Melbourne, 01 July 2009

VB remains great value, retaining its wholesale price unchanged on stubbies and cans despite Federal Government excise increases and rising input costs.

With bi-annual CPI-indexed excise increases applying from 1 August and in the face of rising input costs including malt and hops,  VB will hold its wholesale price in stubbies and cans, through tough economic times. VB will reduce alcohol-by-volume from 4.8 to 4.6% from August to fund this.

"With a microscopic change in alcohol content, VB will come in line with most Australian mainstream beers", said VB Group Marketing Manager, Paul Donaldson. "The beer tastes exactly the same, has the same standard drinks, and offers better value to stockists."

"We're investing behind the brand with one of Australia's biggest ever beer ads - VB Regulars - launching next week", Paul said.  "VB is Australia's favourite beer and we're making sure it remains the real Australian beer.

Talk about making it a positive: despite the Government, the cost of ingredients and economic conditions - not to mention the cost of the huge ad we're unveiling next week...

This is becoming an annual event, following on from the move in July 2007 when Fosters cut the alcohol-by-volume from 4.9% to 4.8%, and a similar move by Castlemaine Perkins in July last year to reduce XXXX Bitter to reduce their ABV to 4.6%.

While this has generated considerable media coverage and all sorts of mainstream debate about whether the flavour will change don’t expect too much different. Even when the alcohol was around the 4.9% ABV, the flavour profiles were trending light. It reminds me of an article by Rory Gibson in 2006 when Castlemaine Perkins launched the short-lived Special Brew…

Brent Wright, XXXX's head brewer and the creator of Special Brew, says the beer was designed to attract those that inhabit “the night-time zone”.

“We've done a lot of research which identified a niche market for XXXX, aimed at the younger crowd who are essentially impervious to mainstream advertising,” Wright says, which explains why Special Brew had such a low-key launch at the end of November.

“These people go out to a bar and they tend to drink something with more taste to it, like wine, spirits or the RTD (ready to drink) cans.

“They don't want to have too many -- they might have five or six drinks a night -- but they want to taste them.

“XXXX Gold is a beer you can drink a lot of but it has no taste memory. Special Brew is a step-up in flavour.''

Although it still uses the Golden Cluster hops and special yeast that its older brothers are made with, the Special Brew clocks in at 6.5 per cent alcohol, is a darker colour and carries more bitterness and fullness.

Although comparisons are odious to brewers who put a lot of effort into creating what they have every right in thinking is a unique beer, Brent names James Squire's Golden Ale as a drink that shares similar characteristics.

“I can still remember the original XXXX, which had a lot more bitterness and bite than the beer we have today. Special Brew reminds me of that,'' Wright says.

“It is a challenging beer, hoppy and malty, and we are proud of it.''

If it doesn't make an impression on the market, it may disappear into the "good idea but no one wanted it'' bin.

When asked if it was a permanent fixture on the XXXX menu or just a fishing exercise by the marketing department, Wright wouldn't say.

“If it shows stickability Special Brew is here to stay,'' he says. Given Wright spent a year perfecting it he has his fingers crossed that all his 20-year-old son's mates get a taste for it.

There is so much going on in this article that I want to comment on (which is why it immediately leapt to mind) but the phrase “no taste memory” just screams “tasteless” and the sentence “I can still remember the original XXXX, which had a lot more bitterness and bite than the beer we have today'' . Just says it all. Obviously stickability wasn't one of its attributes as it sank pretty quickly.

These mainstream beers are going the way of water anyway as brewers frantically try and chase a generation raised on sweet, fizzy drinks for whom bitterness holds no attraction. It’s not about quality (at least in terms of being ‘good’ as opposed to ‘consistent’), it’s about marketshare. And they are businesses afterall. They will be here in some form of multinational megacorp long after many of the great little craft breweries springing up today have folded because their reasons for being are so different. These breweries have been around for so long because their "portfolio of brands" is just the means to make a return for shareholders. They don’t really care what those fast moving consumer goods are so long as they are moving.

The mindset is just confirmed when you see someone with Chuck Hahn’s standing in the beer community, someone who I greatly respect, saying things like:

"What we do to lighten the beer up is use three to 30 percent cane sugar to make the beer thinner and more thirst quenching," he told ninemsn.

"It's more refreshing on a hot day than German beers — it's brewed for our climate."

"Nothing's more natural than cane sugar," he said.

"There is no sugar left in the beer, it is fermented out by the yeast."

But while Ms Pavoni pointed out that German beer contains less calories than full cream milk or grape juice, Mr Hahn said it was harder to drink Bavarian beers in large amounts because they are richer in flavour.

"With richer tasting beer you don’t drink as much," he said.

With up to 30% cane sugar being used in mainstream beers dropping the ABV back .2% just means a little less of the cane sugar, which is just there for alcohol because it adds nothing to the body or flavour anyway. It is what gives these beers their “sessionability”. No one will notice the difference, except maybe the sugar cane farmers. Which, returning to VB, makes it interesting that nowhere in the discussion about input prices is sugar mentioned, although they have increased over the past 12 months.

As for the phrases “They don't want to have too many -- they might have five or six drinks a night” and  "With richer tasting beer you don’t drink as much," I’ll leave them to the anti-alcohol campaigners to comment on. It’s a separate issue, but if you want to know who painted the huge target on the beer industry for the neo-prohibitionists to aim for, you don’t need to look much further.

A tale of two ad campaigns

I just found this draft of a post that Iwrote months ago never got around to posting for some reason...maybe I was worried about sounding too negative all the time. Still, I enjoyed reading it again so though I'd post it anyway. I don't think I finished it but you'll get the point... No matter how much of a beer purist you are, beer and marketing are pretty much interwoven. There's no point making the best beer in the world if no-one buys it, and even if people buy it now, with so many beers hitting the shelves every week there is no guarantee that they will buy it next week instead of moving on to the shiny new thing.

Even allowing for that truism, beer advertising generally shits me. Most beer advertising is generally designed to push buttons with the audience so the beer drinker identifies with the brand attributes the marketer tries to wrap around the product rather than try and sell a beer.  (NB to speak to a beer marketer you wouldn't actually know what they sell...they don't talk about "our selection of beers", they talk about their "portfolio of brands"). This is generally because the vast majority of beers consumed in Australia are lagers and if you could DNA test them you would find there is a greater genetic difference between a kennel full of labradors than between 80% of beer consumed in Australia.

Consequently they can't really talk about their beer other than in the vaguest possible way by saying how "dry", "crisp", "refreshing" or "drinkable" it is and how "little aftertaste" it has (all of which are ways to say "little flavour" without making it sound like a negative).

• I'm a Loyal Queenslander - drink XXXX,
• Had a win at the races and want to show I'm cashed up - Crown Lager,
• I'm looking after myself but still drink beer - anything low-carb,
• I'm a man of discernment who clearly thinks deeply about my buying decisions - Stella, Heineken, Asahi, Becks.
• I'm a man of discernment who clearly thinks really deeply about my buying decisions and I'm different from the pack - Peroni (until it becomes too popular)
• I don't like the flavour of beer but don't want to drink wine coolers or RTDs and still want an alcohol-induced buzz - Corona.

I'm no mathematician, but if I was to express the above observations about beer and advertising using mathematical symbols designed to make it sound scientific and elevate it beyond just my opinion, I would express it this way...

if α = β

and Ω = β

then α = Ω = β

Where  α = flavourless; Ω = pandering stereotypes; β = broadest appeal

Which is why 90% of the beer sold in Australia is the same thing, with just the label and ads marking the difference...

Universal language

I have no idea exactly what is being said here, but you get the gist pretty clearly...and it's some pretty amazing web-trickery at the same time... Click this link

Type your first name on the first line Type your second name on the second line Skip your e-mail address. Click on 'Vizualizar' and watch what happens