Beer brands might have taken their eye of the schooner in recent years and the broader market’s gone flat. Lion will try to hit the spot by putting the product back at the heart of the ads. And by reminding Australians why beer is so damn good.
National marketing director Matt Tapper said the company plans to put some fizz back into a flat category by creating a better beer culture. He has a five-point plan to reverse the decline. The first point is to “champion rituals, behaviours and language”, said Tapper. That could be “shouting a mate a beer or explaining the difference between ale and lager”.
The second rule is to keep good company and widen Australians' associations with beer drinking. “Ask an Australian beer lover what company beer keeps and they would probably say sports. So we need to work out how to embrace other parts of Australian society consistent with our diverse community.”
The third aim is to shape and share stories. “In a world where people love authenticity, we have lots of good stories to tell. More positive than those told in the newspapers.” The fourth point is celebrating 'land to hand'. “There are four basic ingredients [in beer]. Beer is so beautifully uncomplicated yet it is amazing the diversity that comes from those four ingredients.”
The last element is to nurture places of worship, "from great pubs and on-premise venues through to XXXX in Brisbane, Boag's in Launceston, or The Malt Shovel Brewery in Camperdown,” said Tapper. "When we invest in the brands we will use that filter."
As well as trying to lift the overall category, Tapper said it was also “critical that we celebrate the product” itself. In recent years, he suggested, beer brands have lost focus on the actual product: beer. "Our ads have not been as product-oriented as they could, or should, have been. We will once again be celebrating the fundamentals of the product.”
Not to do so would be a waste of beer’s key attributes, he said. "Refreshment – a lot of other brands and categories would die to have that key attribute.” Lion will drive “a subtle shift” between the focus on product and brand to deliver “increasingly product-centric” campaigns, he said.
Whether Australia will ever see the beer ads on the scale of Mojo’s iconic 'I Feel Like a Toohey’s' depends on whether you view the scale of digital in the same way as the scale of traditional big-budget TV campaigns. Either way, Lion spends big across all channels, some $55-$60 million in 2012, according to Nielsen – up 33% on 2011 – making it the country's 14th biggest advertiser.
Tapper said that the company was happy with the way campaign effectiveness could be measured digitally, and specifically for social, the firm has developed its own social metrics system that determines whether a relationship is active, rather than just a counting a ‘like’ or a tweet.
However, he is “not entirely happy” with the accuracy of traditional campaign measurement. “It is difficult to break down each component – TV versus outdoor for example – and attribute value, especially if [your campaign is running] simultaneously.”
That may be an inexact science, but what is known is that the craft beer market in Australia is nipping at the market share of the big two. Tapper said Lion is not worried. “That segment is growing faster than any other, but off a small base. From where I sit, well upstream, that there is a growing market of beer lovers is a good thing for the market as a whole.”
The beer conglomerates have long recognised the potential of craft beer. Carlton United Brewers bought the Matilda Bay brewing company 23 years ago. Its parent company, SABMiller, owns the Bluetongue Brewery in NSW.
Lion's own brands, James Squire and Little Creatures, are “keeping pace [with independent craft beer brands' growth] if not driving growth,” said Tapper. That's borne out by the fact Lion is about to open a another Little Creatures brewery in Geelong.
Now, he said, its time for the bigger brands to innovate again.
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