Foster’s is giving consumers the chance to win a unique trip to “the thirstiest place on earth” – Ayers Rock, Australia – in an on-pack summer promotion in partnership with music and discovery app, Shazam.

Running until August 31st, the on-pack prize draw means Foster’s fans who buy a multipack and ‘Shazam a Can’ could win a variety of items including chill disks, chiller seats and slings, as well as well as the ultimate trip to “the thirstiest place on earth”.

Shoppers just have to scan the Shazam icon on the can with their mobile devices to enter the competition. They will be notified instantly if they have won one of the thousands of instant prizes.

The winner of the trip to Australia will be selected via a prize draw at the end of the campaign.

Foster’s says it is activating its “For the thirsty” platform throughout the summer months to drive penetration at a time when shoppers are looking for crisp, cool refreshment.

Toby Lancaster, Category and Shopper Marketing Director for Heineken, says: “With 52% of beer and cider value sales taking place over key seasonal periods, our on-pack promotion throughout the summer offers a great opportunity for retailers at a time when shoppers are looking for crisp, cool refreshment. Activating on-can means that we that we are able to cover a greater number of our SKUs, incentivising purchases and driving additional sales for retailers over the summer months. We are very much looking forward to revealing the lucky winner at the end of August.”

Foster’s on-pack promotion is available across 4 x 440ml, 10 x 440ml, 12 x 440ml and 18 x 440ml can pack formats and also Foster’s single 440ml and 568ml cans.

Heineken is the UK’s leading pub, cider and beer business. The company owns around 2,900 pubs as part of its Star Pubs & Bars business, and employs almost 2,200 people. Its portfolio of brands includes Foster’s, Heineken, Strongbow, Desperados, Kronenbourg1664, John Smith’s, Bulmers, Amstel, Birra Moretti and Old Mout, as well as a range of niche and speciality beers.

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Glenfiddich is launching a new campaign to promote Fire & Cane, the fourth and latest release in the Glenfiddich “Experimental Series”. The campaign broke on July 23rd 2018 in the USA, with sampling and experiential activations at the Taste of the Cocktails event in New Orleans, and will roll out in other lead markets later in the year – including France in September, the UK in October and Taiwan in 2019

The campaign is part of the William Grant & Sons-owned brand’s continued drive to recruit new drinkers into the whisky category.

The New Orleans tasting saw the whisky paired with grilled andouille (local Cajun sausage), grits, peppers and cream cheese.

The campaign was put together for Glenfiddich by London-based creative agency Space, which has been awarded the lead strategic and creative responsibilities for launching the next edition in the Experimental Series. The campaign brings to life the brand’s maverick spirit and focuses on the power of a simple question and how it can lead consumers on a journey to challenge conventions.

The newest expression in the Experimental Series is an unexpected peated whisky finished in Latin rum casks.

The campaign will be predominantly social, and kicks off with a 5-second teaser video. It will also feature short-form AV assets, Out of Home, print, interactive social assets such as Facebook canvases and Instagram polls, as well as experiential and sampling, all created by Space.

Campaign visuals centre on the liquid’s unique flavour profile. The hero 20” social video features animated CGI sugar crystals and innovative liquid photography showcasing the smokiness and sweetness of Fire & Cane. It runs in reverse order, opening with the product beauty shot (the outcome of the experiment), and closing with the moment of inspiration (the genesis of the experiment).  The core message is that when you question convention, as Glenfiddich has with Fire and Cane, you can spark the unexpected.

Oliver Rudgard, Global Brand Director at Glenfiddich, says: “Fire & Cane is #4 in the Glenfiddich Experimental Series.  The Experimental Series demonstrates our continued commitment to create new, innovative and inspiring whiskies.  Working with the great team at Space, we have pushed the creative boundaries further to create a set of new codes in the single malt category which are set to create cut through, attention and desire for the Fire & Cane launch across the globe.”

Jason Nicholas, Managing Partner at Space, adds: “The Experimental Series offers the chance to continually work on something that challenges a category. The creative idea in this campaign has led to the creation of a beautifully crafted and visceral campaign that will get under the skin of new drinkers and whisky advocates alike. Working with Glenfiddich on this their key campaign for 2018 has been a great opportunity and led to a campaign we’re really proud of.”

Glenfiddich most recently collaborated with Space to launch its first whisky finished in India Pale Ale (IPA) casks. This was backed by a global TV campaign, also created by Space.

Space is an award-winning integrated marketing agency which works across social, mobile, outdoor, in store, on-pack, in print, live or virtually. Clients include Heineken, Arla Foods, William Grant & Sons, General Mills, Eurostar, Sky, Coral, Bundesliga, UEFA, NBA and AELTC. Our work has been globally recognised with four ‘best in the world’ awards

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McDonald’s has signed a deal with The Smiley Company, master licensee for the Rubik’s Cube, for the iconic 1980s puzzle toy to feature in McDonald’s Happy Meal offers in multiple countries.

In a deal brokered by global customer engagement agency The Marketing Store, which has worked closely with McDonald’s for many years, the multi-territory promotion will appear in McDonald’s restaurants across various European countries, the Middle East, Africa and North America.

The campaign launches in France this month (July 2018) and will then roll out across other territories from August through November 2018, including Italy, Spain, Austria, UAE and Canada, amongst many others.

It is not clear yet whether it will be running in the UK, where restrictions are in force on the use of toys and licensed characters to promote food and drink products. Promomarketing has asked McDonald’s for clarification on this point.

Unusually, the Happy Meal Box will be transformed from its traditional tented ‘house’ design into a Cube shape to mirror the Rubik’s Cube for the duration of the campaign.

Children enjoying a Happy Meal at participating McDonald’s will have a choice of four different bespoke Rubik’s Cube toys; including square 2×2 cubes and rectangular 3×2 cubes as well as rounded versions of these, with a total of 12 different toys to choose from.

The unique promotion will also feature a product mash-up between Rubik’s and a major Hollywood animation film studio’s properties appearing on the toys alongside the iconic Rubik’s Cube colours and trademark twist and turn mechanism.

Nicolas Loufrani, CEO at The Smiley Company, says: “We have worked closely with The Marketing Store and the whole team at McDonald’s and are really pleased with the innovative and high quality content of this campaign. From the robust mini Cubes and the unique Rubik’s Cube shaped Happy Meal box to the TV ads and bespoke games created for the Happy Studio app, every aspect of the promotion has been crafted to perfectly leverage the Rubik’s brand mission of encouraging children to PLAY SMART and further our goal of bringing intelligent play to kids of all ages.”

The Smiley Company will be leveraging the partnership with McDonald’s to drive the ongoing Rubik’s brand extension program and “to realise our plans to take the brand to new consumers, with particular emphasis on engaging the brand with children aged from 3-8 years old, as our brand mission continues to focus on creating new toy partnerships for this age group,” Loufrani adds.

To support the promotion’s launch in the markets where it will be appearing, there will be a 360° marketing campaign, supported by a TV advertising featuring the Happy Meal mascot ‘HAPPY’ playing with a Rubik’s Cube in a 26 and 13 second spots. There will also be series of ‘How to Solve’ short video tutorials launched on social channels to help kids solve the bespoke Happy Meal Rubik’s Cubes, and a McDonald’s Happy Studio app takeover.

Additional marketing materials will include in-store POS, branded balloons, colouring sheets, wall stickers and window decals which will help amplify the Rubik’s brand identity throughout the promotion.

The launch of the activation in France is being supported with an influencers’ campaign while other national markets will also see major marketing initiatives.

The Smiley Company is a brand licensing company which originated in France and which holds the intellectual property rights to the classic smiley face symbol face symbol in more than 100 countries (although not the United States, where the symbol originated).

In addition to the smiley symbol, it also holds licensing rights for Rubik’s Cube and related properties, and recently launched a major brand extension program for Rubik’s. This draws on Rubik’s iconicity, rich heritage and archive and the resurgence of retro gaming and geek culture, while utilising Smiley’s own industry leading design studio and world class distribution channels.

The company says global demand for Rubik’s is now at the highest levels since its launch in 1980 and a number of industry leading partners have already signed up across categories including apparel, back to school, gift, live events and attractions, partworks, promotions and publishing.

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Italian spirits brand Aperol is bringing its Aperol Spritz Sundial Social back to London South Bank, offering Londoners free Aperol Spritz serves when the 20 foot wide Aperol sundial strikes ‘aperitivo hour’ at 5.00pm.

Running from today (July 11th) to July 15th, the pop-up bar (which first appeared in Summer 2017) will also feature music, snacks and Aperol fussball and table tennis, as well as visual cues referencing Italian culture, such as chairs made out of scooter seats.

Consumers do not need to book in advance: the brand says they can turn up, order a free Aperol Spritz (one per customer) and enjoy what it calls “contagious Italian fun”, in celebration of Italy’s aperitivo culture. Aperol claims the ‘Aperitivo Hours’ in Italy are a ritual built around a natural casual get together at the end of the day, over a drink or two which have for years begun with an Aperol Spritz, Italy’s most popular cocktail.

Aperol has just published research which found that over half (56%) of Brits think they have lost all spontaneity, and a fifth of Londoners (22%) haven’t been for a spontaneous drink with a friend in over five months.

The Southbank activation aims to encourage Londoners to embrace a more easy-going Italian approach to socialising. It is open from 5.00pm-9.00pm Wednesday to Saturday and 12.00pm to 4.00pm Sunday.

The Aperol Spritz Sundial Social is a follow up to the recent The Aperol Big Spritz Social, which popped up for eight days near Hoxton Square in June. Other Aperol Spritz events are planned over the summer.

Aperol is a classic Italian bitter aperitif which is usually mixed with Prosecco and a splash of soda in a wine glass full of ice and a slice of orange. The brand is owned by Campari Group, which is a major player in the global spirits industry, with a portfolio of over 50 premium and super premium brands.

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El Jimador, a leading premium tequila brand owned by US drinks giant Brown-Forman, is launching a ‘smart’ bottle and connected drinks coaster, using technology developed by Norwegian NFC experts, Thinfilm.

The six-figure deal is a key element of el Jimador’s omni-channel ‘Soccer Moments’ campaign, and is being heralded as the biggest ever largest NFC-related activation for a tequila brand. El Jimador is the sponsor of the Mexican National Soccer team’s 2018 US tour.

In collaboration with Thinfilm, el Jimador has incorporated NFC tags in custom bottle-neckers and branded coasters. When tapped with a smartphone in-store, at home, or on the go, el Jimador customers can instantly submit their favorite soccer story for a chance to win $25,000, custom jerseys, and other prizes. The NFC tags fully integrate with Thinfilm’s CNECT Cloud Platform and enable el Jimador marketers to view real-time tapping activity, analyze campaign performance, and uncover actionable insights.

The connected el Jimador bottles and coasters are being distributed through select retail outlets, bars, and restaurants across the United States.

Ed Carias, Senior Brand Manager for el Jimador tequila at Brown-Forman says: “Our Soccer Moments campaign is connecting us with consumers who are both fans of soccer and fans of the el Jimador brand. By leveraging the smartphone that most of us carry today, Thinfilm’s NFC solution significantly extends our ability to establish those connections, build lasting consumer relationships, and drive the success of the el Jimador brand.”

Following its Soccer Moments promotion, el Jimador plans to use Thinfilm’s NFC mobile marketing solution in a “Day of the Dead” campaign this coming October.

“It has become increasingly common for leading brands like el Jimador to position NFC as a key enabler within major omnichannel marketing initiatives,” said Davor Sutija, CEO of Thinfilm. “The Soccer Moments campaign is a perfect example.”

Thin Film Electronics ASA is a publicly listed company in Norway with global headquarters in Oslo, Norway; US headquarters in San Jose, California; and offices in Linköping, Sweden; San Francisco; London; Hamburg; Singapore; and Shanghai. Its Thinfilm solutions use NFC to connect FMCG products to the Internet of Things.

El Jimador is a premium 100% blue agave tequila made by Mexican distillery Tequila Herradura, founded in 1870. In 2007, the company was bought by Brown-Forman for $776 million. Over the past 10 years, Brown-Forman, which owns other alcohol brands including Jack Daniel’s, Southern Comfort and Finlandia Vodka, has been expanding international distribution for el Jimador and it is now sold in 136 countries, compared with the 56 countries at the time of the acquisition.

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Weber, the world’s best-known brand in barbecuing, has been promoting the launch of its new grill, Pulse, with a European roadshow appearing in 17 separate cities in 10 countries over 12 weeks.

Created for Weber by London-based brand activation agency, A Little Bird, the European roadshow was designed to deliver a world-class barbecue experience to thousands of consumers across the 17 cities, centring on a converted double decker bus which will be visiting countries including Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, finishing this week in France.

Although the Weber campaign is globally consistent, the roadshow will adapt to different communities and lifestyles, ensuring cultural relevance and local connection. The 17 cities, and 10 countries, being visited have different needs and preferences when it comes to barbecuing.

Components of the bus include a Weber Pulse product showroom, back-of-house kitchen, an arrivals bar area, top deck dining terrace for 12 seated customers with a moveable table, three cooking stations and service area. Visitors can take advantage of the showroom with a full range of Pulse accessories and screens to interact with. Guests can spend time with Weber specialist chefs on the upper terrace to indulge in regional dishes cooked over the three Pulses.

Each market had three live scheduled days to activate the Weber Pulse bus and used it to support store openings and specific retailers. George is also visiting festivals and busy city hubs.

To build on the experience, each market will take an integrated comms approach to promoting the bus locally, supported by social activity and private dining experiences, either through sign up or competition.

Tim Solano, Managing Partner of A Little Bird, says: “Since we started working with Weber we have encouraged the brand to take a global consistency approach, adding flexibility and adaptability to meet local nuances of the markets we are targeting.”

A Little Bird is a brand activation agency working across the UK, EU and US. Clients include Bacardi-Martini, Weber, LEGO, Gressingham Duck, Gruppo Campari, Sperry, The Body Shop and Botantic Labs.

Weber-Stephen Products LLC, headquartered in Palatine, Illinois (USA), is the world’s leading manufacturer of charcoal, gas and electric grills, grilling accessories and award-winning cookbooks and mobile applications.

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Energy drink Carabao has launched a new on-pack offer giving UK and Irish consumers the chance to win a share of a total £1m cash prize fund, the brand’s biggest-ever giveaway. The top prize has been set at £50,000.

The campaign launches July 1st 2018 and will run for three months, offering consumers an opportunity to win every 60 seconds.

Carabao, which is a major football sponsor, plans to support the promotion with a £1m+ TV ad campaign that will run throughout August and September on ITV, Sky and Channel 5. There will also be on-demand ads, press ads, big screens at football stadiums and pitch-side LEDs.

To enter, consumers have to be over 18. They need to buy a promotional can, go to www.CarabaoCash.com and enter the unique code found under the ring-pull. They will find out instantly if they have won a prize.

The launch of the new prize draw comes hot on the heels of Carabao’s latest major campaign; last month’s We Are Female Fans initiative – which aimed to change negative female football fan stereotypes – as well as a stunt involving offering a helicopter service to help Southern Rail commuters get to work on time despite the timetable changes.

Carabao says its on-going investment in initiatives of this type – appealing to a mass market, inclusive adult audience – is part of outs strategy to differentiate itself from other energy drinks and drive further growth in the energy drinks category as a whole.

John Luck, Chief Marketing Officer at Carabao UK, says: “Giving away £1M is a pretty crazy thing to do, but Carabao is a drink for people leading increasingly busy and bonkers lives, so it feels entirely appropriate.”

Carabao’s energy drinks range is exclusively low or no sugar, with the promotion available in all available flavours.

Carabao was invented in Thailand by a rock star called Aed Carabao, who named himself and his band after the carabao, a local breed of buffalo. It claims to be the only energy drink brand in the UK to offer exclusively low-sugar or sugar-free product formats.

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The Citizen’s Foundation UK, the UK arm of a major Pakistan-based charity, has appointed shopper marketing agency smp as its UK lead social media agency to drive awareness of its work and raise funds.

The Citizen’s Foundation is in the top five largest charities in Pakistan, helping give underprivileged children access to education in Pakistan, building over 1,482 schools, and educating over 220,000 children in the past 22 years.

Effective immediately, smp will refresh The Citizen’s Foundation’s paid social strategy with an initial focus on Ramadan. The appointment is a new scope of work and is part of a wider change in marketing strategy to move away from email marketing to social media-led campaigns. Led by Business Director Mark Burgess, smp will handle all the NGO’s social activity, including advertising, media buying and analysis.

Cally Archibald, Social Media Strategist at smp, says: “The Citizen’s Foundation is an exceptional organisation that brings genuine, positive social change in Pakistan through education. We’re very excited to be collaborating with them to increase awareness of the important fundraising work they do in the UK.”

Rukhsana Parveen-Cic, Executive Director at The Citizen’s Foundation, comments: “We’re an organisation working to help bring 22 million children out of poverty in Pakistan. Donors in Pakistan and the United States have been supporting the programme, but TCF UK has struggled to establish a foothold in the UK market. We’re really excited about the potential for social media to spread the word about the extraordinary work of TCF. We have won awards for the quality education that we provide for some of the most vulnerable children in the world. We hope that with the help of smp we will ultimately generate more donations.”

smp is a multi-award-winning marketing agency specialising in creating compelling content experiences for all stages of the customer journey, both online and offline. Client experience spans leading brands including Electrolux Group, Fitbit, Western Digital Corporation and Kimberly-Clark.

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Mexican beer brand Corona and charity Parley for the Oceans are taking their partnership against marine plastic pollution to the global stage by hijacking iconic symbols of paradise for today’s World Oceans Day (June 8^th 2018).

As part of the campaign, the partners have created a sculpture, The ‘Wave of Waste’, in Old Street, London, featuring Australian actor Chris Hemsworth (Marvel’s Thor) surfing in a wave of plastic collected in the UK.

Over the last few days, Londoners have been able to contribute to this installation by dropping off their own plastic waste at the site of the billboard.

Corona and Parley launched their partnership a year ago; the latest campaign sees Corona hijacking its own advertising and iconic visions of paradise, plus the classic Hawaiian shirt pattern, to reveal the impact of marine plastic pollution.

Corona is selling a new Hawaiian shirt on its website which features threads made from marine plastic pollution. The Parley Ocean Plastic is collected from the open ocean, remote islands, shorelines and coastal communities. The design subtly features everyday plastic items like toothbrushes and plastic bottles to represent the fact that the issue at a distance is hard to see, but pervasive up close. The limited-edition shirts are available in three colours and can be purchased at wslstore.com/corona for £53 ($70). Proceeds from each Corona Hawaiian shirt will go to Parley for the Oceans to help support its mission to protect our oceans.

Installations like the Old Street one will also be appearing in Melbourne, Santiago, Bogota, Santo Domingo and Lima, all made from plastic collected from local beaches. The London installation includes plastic collected by The Marine Conservation Society from Holywell beach, East Sussex.

“As a brand that is synonymous with the beach, we are seeing the destruction of shorelines and oceans up close,” says Felipe Ambra, Global VP of Corona. “Our ads usually showcase paradise the way we assume it to be, pristine and beautiful, but today it’s increasingly hard to find a beach without plastic. Through our work with Parley, we hope to reverse this trend. This World Oceans Day, Corona wants to remind the world that we all need to protect our beaches to continue enjoying them.”

Corona and Parley point out that roughly eight million metric tons of plastic waste are dumped into the ocean each year. To raise awareness of this fact, the brand is inserting plastic into other places it doesn’t belong. Corona is starting by twisting its own campaign tagline and imagery to show the unfortunate fate of paradise plagued by plastic pollution.

Last month, the partnership changed the name of the “Corona Bali Pro” World Surf League event to “Corona Bali Pro-tected”, to make the point that even the most remote and aspirational paradises around the world are suffering.

Corona and Parley are committed to protecting 100 islands around the world by 2020 (see 100IslandsProtected.com). Launched last year, the partnership is already working with local communities in the Maldives, Dominican Republic and Chile and will continue to scale up efforts in several more regions within the next year. Corona x Parley also announced a fundraising platform called Clean Waves in May that upcycles plastic pollution into fashion products for purchase, with all proceeds going to additional island protection.

Parley for the Oceans is a global network covering the creative industries, brands, governments and environmental groups aimed at protecting the oceans. The organization has formed alliances with major corporations including adidas, Anheuser Busch InBev (Corona), Intel and the United Nations.

Corona is the leading beer brand in the Mexico and the most popular Mexican beer worldwide, exported to more than 180 countries. The Corona brand is owned by Anheuser-Busch.

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Marketing services group Omnicom has created a new ‘Global Experiential Practice Group’, a network consisting of its market-leading experiential agencies, including Auditoire and Luxury Makers of France, DOIT! from Germany, GMR Marketing of the US, and, from the UK, TRO.

The group said in a statement that Omnicom Experiential Group “will form a borderless experiential network… Building upon Omnicom’s core growth strategies, the Experiential Group is focused on: strengthening new business development; creating customized teams for clients; better targeting of internal investments; improving expertise and knowledge across management teams; and creating more opportunities for our employees. Agencies within the Practice Area will continue to retain their strong individual brands and cultures.”

Cameron Parsons, CEO of GMR Marketing, observes: “Omnicom Experiential Group provides us an opportunity to combine the strengths of our individual agencies to create an unmatched global offering for today’s leading brands. We know that marketing is changing at the speed of culture. Now, more than ever, creating a truly meaningful connection and building consumer trust through experiences gives us the power to change how people think, feel and behave.”

Omnicom Experiential Group will include 1,600 practitioners across 29 offices in 16 countries with leadership in five global hubs: London, Milwaukee, Paris, Sao Paulo and Shanghai. The agencies making up the group create over 65,000 activations every year, driving more than a billion engagements (digital and physical).

Omnicom says that with one in three Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) saying they will set aside between 21% and 50% of their budgets for experiential elements (2017 Freeman Global Brand Experience Study), its new network is poised to capitalize on the sector’s growth.

Omnicom Experiential Group is led by a board consisting of the founding members, Cameron Parsons, CEO, GMR Marketing, Cyril Giorgini, CEO, Auditoire and Michael Wyrley-Birch, CEO, TRO Group.

“We all know that more and more people seek experiences over material objects. Omnicom Experiential Group gives us a global toolbox of capabilities and talent to bring brand experiences to life anywhere, anytime.” adds Cyril Giorgini, CEO of Auditoire. “For global brands with a need to deliver global strategies with local insight, there is no better solution.”

Michael Wyrley-Birch, CEO, TRO Group, says: “In the current environment where fast-changing technology and customer requirements are driving change, speed is a key competitive edge for our clients. As a borderless agency, we can develop global strategies and creative that are relevant and implemented by our local experts at the speed that keeps our clients ahead of the competition.”

Omnicom Group (www.omnicomgroup.com) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom’s branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

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