Bells: The World's Largest Pub Quiz - winner of the Print and Radio Sponsorship category

SPONSOR: Diageo: Bells

RIGHTS HOLDER/RECIPIENT ORGANISATION: Global & Metro

AGENCY/CONSULTANCY: CARAT SPONSORSHIP

MISSION STATEMENT

We had a budget of £550k to reposition Bell’s as a credible brand with a story to tell which connected with its audience through British culture, whilst also driving awareness of its charitable partnership with Help for Heroes.

In a media first, Global Radio and Metro joined forces, combining the best of print and radio, to deliver an initiative that would take a traditional pub cornerstone and turn it into a groundbreaking nationwide event , building Bell’s an association not just with popular culture but pub culture – The World’s Largest Pub Quiz.

Campaign Background

In a marketplace where whisky brands have aligned with popular culture to build credibility and be seen as brands that stand for something (Jameson with film, Jack Daniel’s with music), Bell’s Whisky found itself having an association with nothing other than being a regular fixture behind the bar of most pubs in the UK.

We had a budget of £550k to reposition Bell’s as a credible brand with a story to tell which connected with its audience through British culture, whilst also driving awareness of its charitable partnership with Help for Heroes.

CCS, our own planning tool allowed us to understand our consumers’ (males 25-45) media consumption, interests and hobbies. Pub quizzes and spending time with friends came high on the list, so we actively pursued this route with radio and press partners.

In a media first, Global Radio and Metro joined forces, combining the best of print and radio, to deliver an initiative that would take a traditional pub cornerstone and turn it into a groundbreaking nationwide event , building Bell’s an association not just with popular culture but pub culture – The World’s Largest Pub Quiz.

Objectives

Bell’s marketing challenges were extremely diverse and this campaign needed to deliver all of the following:

• Raise awareness of the Bells and the Help For Heroes partnership in a credible way to encourage a positive perception change for Bell’s

• Increase awareness of the Bell’s and Help for Heroes association by +15%

• Encourage a +10% positive shift towards purchase intention

• Drive sales of Bell’s

Execution and Exploration

On November 29th we broadcast a nationwide ground-breaking piece of branded content for Bell’s in the form of The World’s Largest Pub Quiz.

Hosted live by broadcaster Danny Wallace, the campaign delivered Bell’s a unique first – an interactive quiz night held simultaneously in 8,000 pubs. Using radio station LBC’s Sky TV feed to deliver a tailored satellite broadcast to participating pubs, bar staff simply tuned their TVs to LBC’s channel 0112 to listen and enable pubs to take part.

Bell’s mobilised their sales force to sign up all 8,000 participating pubs, with each venue promoting the event with branded posters and beer mats, ensuring targeted local amplification. Pubs were also provided with branded answer sheets and medals for award-winning teams.

On the night, classic pub staples were ramped up. The pub juke box became a live ‘human’ jukebox. The classic pub raffle became an interactive nationwide raffle raising money for Help for Heroes. The quiz prize, a £2,500 bar tab, also ensured all participating pubs competed against each other.

To support the event across print media, we sponsored Metro’s puzzle pages to exemplify the insight and activation of the importance of quizzes to our target audience. Display features also teased example questions and acted as a countdown to the event.

In addition, a UK-wide advertising campaign across Global’s XFM, LBC, Gold and Classic FM stations, directed listeners online for more information and to locate participating pubs.

Outcome and Evaluation

The result was a truly unique campaign that took branded content to a whole new level, with people around the country interacting with the content at a crucial point of sale for Bell’s – the pub.

We knew such an ambitious idea would be nigh on impossible to achieve, but it was an incredible success, testament to the strong and open collaboration between each party involved; Diageo, Adam and Eve, Metro, Global Radio, Help for Heroes and Carat.

Activity across Global and Metro’s 31 insertions reached a substantial 41.6% of our target audience (M35-55), at an OTH of 9.4 further ensuring the campaign message was instilled in their minds.

Additionally to campaign reach, we ran two strands of research to measure the effect of the partnership:

• A ten-minute online research panel using Join The Dots as Metro’s research partner

• Research conducted online, via Global Radio’s research partner – Vision Critical

The results were sensational:

• Unprompted recall of any Bell’s advertising or sponsorship over the campaign period up 33% points amongst radio listeners vs. non exposed and up 29% points amongst press readers vs. non exposed

• Awareness of association between Bell’s and Help For Heroes up 34% points amongst radio listeners and up 33% points amongst press readers

• Those stating the Help for Heroes association made them feel more positive about Bell’s increased by 20% points amongst exposed radio listeners and increased by 26% points amongst exposed press readers

• Exposed listeners recorded double digit increases when asked to agree / disagree that the radio content gave them a good feeling about Bell's (up 24% points) and made them think differently about Bells (up 15% points)

• 27% of exposed radio listeners claimed to be likely / extremely likely to purchases Bell’s in the future (up 12% points), with 36% of exposed press readers claiming to be extremely likely to purchase Bell’s in the future (up 27% points)

• When those who attended the Pub Quiz were asked what they thought of the event, 80% of radio listeners and 63% of press readers who took part agreed they Loved it / It was the best thing ever

• Additionally for Bell's, the broadcast captured the imagination of both consumers and the wider pub industry, with the activity acknowledged by on-sale trade as a show of support by creating an initiative that would help drive increased footfall into pubs around the UK

Following the campaign, Bell's Brand Manager, Kizzy Lilburne at Diageo stated,

“We saw an uplift in on trade volume during the lead up to the quiz and for a few months after, as well as receiving positive anecdotes from field sales on how the activity was accepted. We believe the partnership worked very well, as it allowed us to step beyond our normal way of thinking and engage with experts in different areas of media to push the quiz idea as well alignment with popular culture. We were very pleased with the level of engagement and excitement from all partners, particularly Help For Heroes”