Splashing the cash with Carabao
How we created a tasty promotion to grab people's attention and get them reaching for the Carabao when their lives got too bonkers.
BRIEF
In 2018, Thai energy drink Carabao entered its 3rd year in the UK market.
Despite high-profile awareness drivers (sponsorship of the English Football League Cup, Chelsea FC and Reading FC, plus advertising), trial and repeat-purchase figures weren’t increasing quickly enough with wider distribution.
The energy-drinks category remained dominated by established competitors, but Carabao has an edge when it comes to taste, with flavours like Green Apple and Mandarin Orange resonating with the market. With flavour a key converter, driving trial was a priority objective.
We were asked to develop a disruptive on-pack promotion that would in turn drive trial and introduce Carabao as a serious challenger brand for a wide audience.
IDEA
To be a success, the idea had to stand out on shelf, appeal to the masses and ultimately get people buying Carabao.
So, we gave away the one thing everyone wants: cold hard cash in the form of a £1 MILLION giveaway.
When you start talking millions, people start paying attention. It’s bold and a bit mad, and tied in perfectly with the brand’s first UK TV advertising campaign, which would introduce ‘the bonkers drink for bonkers lives’ proposition.
The £1 million giveaway was emblazoned across all cans and featured in TV and radio advertising in a promotional tag. The design featured an illustrated version of the brand’s rock start founder, Aed Carabao. This gave it a personal touch as the story we were building was that Aed was literally sharing the wealth, painting both him and the brand in a good, if slightly bonkers light.
Delivering a bit of back story would strengthen Carabao’s challenger-brand position – a smaller, owner-run product vs the big corporate machine. Everybody loves a rags to riches tale.
Consumers were directed to a bespoke microsite where they would instantly find out if they had a winning code.
The promotion offered over 100,000 cash prizes from £5 to £50,000. The generosity of the prize fund and mechanic meant there was potential for a winner every 60 seconds for 3 months and after this period a further 3 wrap up draws were conducted to reward players entering after the main promotion had ended.
To ensure a speedy prize delivery, we created a seamless prize fulfilment process, with winnings transferred into bank accounts within 3 working days.
RESULTS
The promotion exceeded all expectations, with over 643,000 entries, engaging with over 35,00 individuals.
This resulted in a staggering 35% redemption rate (against an industry benchmark of 2%).
Ultimately the on-pack promotion gave shoppers a reason to trial Carabao, and repeat purchase – trial and rate of sale objectives achieved.