Brief
If you’ve lived in London for longer than 5 minutes, there’s a high chance you’ve been in a Young’s pub and maybe even drunk its beers. But with the rise of the micro-breweries and craft beers, Young’s has been losing customers. They tasked us with overhauling their brand positioning, using social-first thinking to reinvigorate their brand strategy and reach a wider audience to retake their rightful place as London’s flagship beer brand.
Strategy
Young’s is one of London’s oldest brewery brands, with a rich tradition and a heritage in London that they weren’t communicating effectively in their brand messaging or content which is exactly why they’ve been losing out to a bustling craft beer market. Their strong roots in the beer market – like other established brands – opened up the opportunity to evolve and take on the newer players. Our insights team used social listening to unpick Gen Z and Millennial’s social addiction, and discovered the majority of our new target audience consistently experienced “Fear of Missing Out” (FOMO). Londoners also didn’t want to be patronised by associating London with its stereotypical landmarks; they wanted to celebrate the rich and diverse city they live in. Audiences are always searching for the new, the unknown and the exciting. London is about vibrance, creativity, pop-ups and experiences, something that money can’t buy. Being London-centric, Young’s audience are captivated by the kind of content put out by organisations like Vice and Time Out. They want to know what lies beneath the surface of this iconic city, and connect with brands that have a finger on the pulse.
Creation
The creative theme was much bolder than before - ‘Take London Head On’ was big and bold. Using a mix of out of home and social-first content such as influencer and partnerships, we put Young’s on a par with some of London's hidden gems. Our copy and content incorporated the real world around us. We delivered snappy share copy and powerful product photography to breathe vibrance into the brand. Using real-time social listening we developed and (continue to create) content on the fly, in line with trending themes in and around the capital. We worked with Young’s to channel our passion for innovation – using the very latest techniques to elevate video and photography beyond the page, like 3D Gif animation, probe zoom lenses and robotic slow-motion technologies that bring the content to life. In a new Covid-restricted world, we built fun and safe partnerships with food brands, creative spaces and launched their new craft beer range with a pop and fizz. The brand now indulges in itself, with more intimate, creative messaging that we continue to push through social media.
Activation
By reaching out directly to London’s liveliest venues and up-and-coming brands, including Box Park’s What the Pitta! and Salt Shed, we were able to push the messaging deeper into the heart of London’s subcultures. We used micro-influencers to create UGC and created several deep-thinking audience segments through paid social. Using best in class storytelling methods to drive paid media, we were able to engage new audiences with highly targeted and relevant location-specific content. Our vision was to make sure that we still catered to the loyal, traditional audiences through brand storytelling, while also driving towards newer, younger beer drinkers by tapping into London’s heartbeat, through an all-encompassing brand position.
