Our challenge was to drive preference for Leinenkugel's flagship beer, Summer Shandy, throughout the summer (the key buying period) by building awareness of Leinenkugel's amongst macro-craft drinkers and driving engagement and referral amongst Leinenkugel's existing fans. All on a small budget.
Our idea hinged on a simple insight. When it comes to summer daytime beers, Summer Shandy is king. But in reality, our audience – macro-craft drinkers in their late twenties – don't spend a lot of their summer daytime drinking beer. They spend it trapped in the office.
So we created #LeinieFriday – an open permission slip encouraging and enabling people across the US to leave work a little early on Fridays so they could make the most of their summers.
We teased the campaign with shareable Infographics on Facebook and Twitter that playfully explained why people deserved a little time off. As summer neared, we rallied fans by declaring "First Call" on Twitter every Friday at 1 pm. Cinemagraphs and custom photography on Instagram celebrated unique #LeinieFriday occasions – and, partnering with the beer app Untappd, we created a custom #LeinieFriday badge that rewarded fans who joined us.
Finally, to activate the campaign even further, the former president of the brewery, Jake Leinenkugel, came out of retirement for one day – surprising one of our hardest working fans by showing up at his office and taking over his desk job for the afternoon so the fan could leave work and enjoy a #LeinieFriday of his own.
In the end, #LeinieFriday wasn't just a way to advertise our beer. It was a way to activate the brand's purpose of bringing people together, and a way to build on the brand's history of celebrating the outdoors.
Best of all, the campaign identified Friday summer afternoons as a new drinking occasion uniquely ownable to Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy.
#LeinieFriday became the brand's most successful social campaign to date.
The social content – which included photos, GIFs, cinemagraphs and video across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – set new engagement records for the brand. Our #LeinieFriday Untappd badge became one of the successful badges on the app. Thousands of people across the US joined the campaign by leaving work early to enjoy a Leinie, and shared their experience using #LeinieFriday. Most importantly, sales of Shandy increased almost 11%.
