No alcohol beer Budweiser Prohibition has teamed up with Love Island star and personal trainer, Gabby Allen, to unveil a fleet of ‘beer floats’ that will travel the country giving away free Budweiser Prohibition Brew to UK consumers and help them ‘drink smart’ throughout 2018.
The campaign is part of AB InBev’s UK launch of Budweiser Prohibition Brew, the brand’s first alcohol-free beer.
To complement the partnership with Allen and the sampling push, Budweiser is also partnering with Time Out to raise awareness of the new Prohibition Brew and give a helping hand to consumers looking to moderate their drinking this January.
The partnership included a four-page cover wrap on the Tuesday 16th January issue, as well as the distribution of 50,000 product samples with each magazine at key stations across the capital, such as London Victoria, London Paddington, London Bridge and Liverpool Street. An additional 30,000 samples were distributed on the evening of Thursday 18th January, targeting commuters as they started planning their weekends, who might be tempted to break their alcohol-free resolution.
Time Out has produced a digital hub, which will house content about the alcohol-free beer and advise Londoners on how they can make the most of going out with friends while moderating their alcohol consumption.
Budweiser Prohibition Brew is also working with street food operators Street Feast. Until 3rd February, Dinerama Shoreditch and Giant Robot Canary Wharf will host the first-ever Budweiser Prohibition taste test, where people will be challenged to taste three different Budweiser beers and guess which is the new Prohibition brew – with winners receiving their next Bud for free.
The Budweiser Prohibition Brew campaign is being supported by an Out Of Home advertising campaign, as well as digital and social content across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. These elements will focus on Budweiser Prohibition Brew’s great taste, and show consumers that they can still enjoy a beer with friends if they choose not to drink. The social activity will lead consumers to the campaign micro-site, www.budprohibition.com, where they can sign up for a free can of Budweiser Prohibition, redeemable at Tesco.
AB InBev worked with content agency The Story Lab for the partnership with Time Out, while social creative is being handled by Elvis. Anomaly is handling the OOH creative, and the nationwide sampling campaign and the partnership with Gabby Allen is being handled by PR agency 3 Monkeys Zeno.
Sascha Cordes, Senior Brand Manager Budweiser, says: “We are incredibly excited to launch Budweiser Prohibition Brew to the UK, our first ever alcohol-free beer, and even more excited to unveil our fleet that will be delivering the brew up and down the UK, helping the nation stick to their goals this January and beyond. People today are increasingly drinking less alcohol, as part of the broader healthy-living trend. In 2018, we predict this trend to continue, and don’t think there could be a better time for us to launch Budweiser Prohibition Brew for people who are looking for the great taste of beer, but with 0% alcohol.”
In the first two weeks of January alone, Hitwise data suggests searches for “alcohol free beer” increased 171% – but the data also suggests that consumers are finding it hard to stick to their resolutions, with recent searches tailing off.
AB InBev UK research reveals that, as a nation, Britons are definitely drinking less alcohol – a trend that is being driven by millennials – with the low and no-alcohol beer category growing 19.5% in the UK over the past year.
Budweiser Prohibition is the latest beer in AB InBev’s low- and no-alcohol portfolio in the UK, which already includes the market-leading alcohol-free beer Beck’s Blue and Bud Light, brewed to 3.5% ABV.
The expansion of the low- and no-alcohol portfolio is part of AB InBev’s Global Smart Drinking Goals, which includes a pledge that 20% of its global beer volumes will be low-to-no alcohol by 2025, alongside deeper investments in programs that measurably shift social norms and behaviors around the harmful use of alcohol.
