Launching carbon neutral ale for Black Sheep with “The Breathe Inn”
Black Sheep launched a new addition to its cask range called Respire – a completely carbon neutral cask beer, that was designed to appeal to a non-core cask consumer base, who are more engaged with sustainability and environmental issues.
Prohibition was briefed to launch the drink to a new, younger and more diverse demographic on a low budget through creative PR, and content – which has been nominated for several awards, including Best Low Budget Campaign at the PRIDE awards.
Create:
We knew we had a limited budget to play with, so we conducted detailed research, social media listening, and persona analysis amongst the target audience to understand their preferred platform usage as well as broader behaviours and preferences.
Having identified a growing trend for unusual pop-up bars and restaurants – while also mindful that traditional city centre activations were likely to be too expensive and predictable – we decided to launch “The Breathe Inn”; a pop-up bar situated in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, with only one beer on tap – Respire.
Engage:
Our creative and strategic approach would engage our audience using:
- Pre-launch video and drone footage on the day capturing the pub, including interviews/information about the uniqueness of Respire
- The campaign was then outreached to on-trade and selected consumer media, supported with images and videos
- A programme of email marketing (to Black Sheep’s database)
- Organic and paid social media was initiated to promote the Breathe Inn
Convert:
Our drink PR approach was hugely successful, which resulted in:
- 26 pieces of media coverage, 95% of all coverage contained crucial ‘repositioning cask’ messaging
- 85% of engagements via social media coming from “non-core” cask audience
- 2M media circulation, 75% of which sat within core “non-cask” demographic
- Respire is already 42% ahead (sales volume) of where its predecessor brand that it replaced was at this time last year
