SABMiller Castle Milk Stout
Harnessing the power of community values
The challenge
After a period of slow decline, sales of SAB Miller's Castle Milk Stout brand started to pick up, and the company wanted to support the revival. They invited us to provide communications planning skills to their long-term strategic programme for building sales volumes from the grass roots. The challenge was to grow the franchise among current loyal users and increase trial consumption by new consumers.
Our insight
We went into the townships and talked to people who understand the community spirit, such as jazz DJs, journalists and owners of shebeens (township taverns). We came away with two firm ideas:
Firstly, the township people set great store by traditional virtues such as wisdom, experience and community.
Secondly, there is a powerful tradition of story-telling. This is how wisdom has always been passed from generation to generation, and the community is keen to maintain it.
Our solution
We developed a communications platform entitled True greatness within people, through stories to be communicated through a combination of activation ideas:
The Inkunz' Emnyama Awards*: A national programme to showcase stories about men of wisdom and experience who helped the community in a selfless way. We used PR, radio and on-premise promotions to generate entries and publicise the awards.
Brand-building trials: Jazz events with traditional stories told through the music and through scratch cards featuring tales of great jazz musicians. The trials also featured travelling storytellers entertaining drinkers with tales of 'true greatness', encouraging others to tell their own stories.
Community relations: Bottle cap receptacles, in the form of a black bull, were placed outside shebeens. Once the receptacle was full of caps, R15,000 in cash was donated to a community project. As well as helping to increase the status of the shebeen owner within the community, this provided more stories about how communities decided on their particular project.
Results
- 10% sales growth expected from a 5% budget increase
- Working as an integral part of the client team
- Successful networking with community leaders and opinion-formers
- Outstanding example of communications planning consultancy
*In Zulu, Inkunz' Emnyama means 'Black Bull' - the local nickname for Castle Milk Stout
