Young's Bitter - Know your Stuff

Young’s wanted to grow brand awareness, encourage trial and likeability, and build a relationship with our readers. They wanted to amplify the natural ingredients and superior brewing process by associating with existing food and drink events or creating something bespoke.

Our strategy

We wanted to create a series of exclusive London Evening Standard reader evenings in Young’s pubs across the capital to build a relationship with our readers which we would promote across our multi-platform portfolio.

The events would be hosted by a well known food & drink personality, focussing around a bitter-tasting. At each evening we would also feature a famous sportsmen and celebrity to give a talk about their most memorable pint. This would maximize awareness and create a talking point around the initiative.

The big idea

We ran a series of 6 exclusive London Evening Standard reader evenings running from May to June 2010 in a selection of Young’s pubs across the capital.

Hosted by Charles Campion, each evening included a bitter-tasting session with beer expert Melissa Cole giving tasting notes and guidance on 3 ales.

We also included a live Q&A session with a different celebrity at each evening including Alec Stewart, Brain Moore, Sir Geoff Hurst, Martin Peters and Derek Thompson.

The activity launched with full page promotions in the London Evening Standard, driving readers to a bespoke channel within standard.co.uk. Here readers were able to apply for a place at one of the evenings, learn more about Young’s and pick up a voucher for a free pint of Young’s Bitter at a pub near their home.
Following each event, Charles Campion wrote an editorial feature in the London Evening Standard reviewing the evening.

Results

Following the launch on Friday 30th April, we had received over 2000 hits by Wednesday 5th May, and had directly fed 400 visitors to the Young’s website
The results so far (at the half way point) are:

Bespoke channel:

• 7606 unique visitors

• 20037 page impressions