Case study · Food & Drink
Cask beer was losing younger drinkers. Black Sheep Brewery, which has championed cask since 1992, wanted to change how the category is seen and lead the fight for its future. We built Drink Cask Beer: social-first video, influencer talent and national PR. It reached 11 million people and quadrupled brand mentions.
- 11M people reached
- 4x brand mentions, year on year
- 60% of on-trade partners engaged
- 3 activations
- Client Black Sheep Brewery
- Sector Brewing
- Services Creative campaign, social video, influencer talent, national PR
- Audience Younger drinkers and on-trade partners
- Channels Social video, national and trade media, pubs
What did Black Sheep need?
Black Sheep, based in Masham, North Yorkshire, has brewed quality cask beer since 1992. Cask has been in decline, and younger drinkers see it as old-fashioned.
Since 2020 the brewery has campaigned to reverse that trend for the whole industry.
- Business objective: grow cask sales and Black Sheep’s standing with pubs and bars.
- Communication objective: challenge outdated perceptions of cask, broaden its appeal to younger drinkers and make Black Sheep a leading voice for its future.
What was the insight?
You do not change a category’s image by telling people it is not boring. You show them, using the talent and formats they already watch.
The idea was Drink Cask Beer, a platform any pub could get behind.
What did we do?
- Humour. Black Sheep Does Mean Tweets turned the category’s critics into content.
- Spoken word. Poet Jester Jacobs performed a rap about cask beer, made for social.
- Music. A music activation took cask to a new crowd.
- National PR and the trade. National media carried the campaign, and on-trade partners were invited to take part.
What did it achieve?
Results by stage of the AMEC evaluation framework, with the source for each figure.
| Stage | Measure | Result | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outputs | People reached | 11M | Prohibition campaign reporting |
| Out-takes | Brand mentions, year on year | 4x | Social listening |
| Outcomes | On-trade partners engaged | 60% | Black Sheep Brewery |
What did Black Sheep get from it?
A platform that made Black Sheep the leading voice for cask. Mentions of the brand quadrupled on the year before, and 60% of its on-trade partners got involved.
What did we learn?
- Use formats people already love. Mean Tweets, spoken word and music felt native to social.
- Make it bigger than the brand. Campaigning for the whole category earned goodwill from pubs.
- What we would do differently. track cask volumes with partner pubs before and after each activation, so the effect on sales can be shown.
