Budweiser’s ambition was to become the most talked about brand during the FIFA World Cup, to build meaningful connections with consumers and drive massive growth in the UK market.

Barrows were tasked with developing the global shopper campaign for Budweiser’s FIFA World Cup sponsorship. Through our relationship with Budweiser in their local markets, we ensured it was consistently executed at scale, becoming one of the most successful campaigns for ABI UK in the last 5 years.  

Our approach

To tackle this challenge we created a fully integrated below-the-line campaign designed to drive rate of sale and distribution through these 3 pillars:

1. Driving excitement - capitalise on opportunities in the build up to the FIFA World Cup with both customers and consumers.

2. Getting people engaged - use Trade channels and a compelling BTL mechanic to drive consideration and sales at the point of purchase.

3. Executing at scale - ensure consistent execution across all trade touch points.

The solution

To drive excitement in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup in June we ran trade and consumer activation. For the trade this included sell-in days at Wembley Stadium, creation of inspirational sales assets including look of success visuals and white space ideas. For consumers we delivered a promotion that sent 10 lucky fans to the watch the FIFA World Cup Semi-Final and Final in Russia. The promotion was communicated through on trade, off trade and e-commerce channels.

When it came to getting our trade customers engaged closer to the tournament we created impactful sell-in tools to aid with distribution.

For tournament execution at scale, to ensure creative consistency through all channels we developed a communications plan and guidelines document, establishing a clear visual hierarchy which crossed all trade channels which we could then sell in. These guidelines were utilised by suppliers to ensure creative consistency across channels.

We managed all FIFA approval for the trade channels and developing an acute understanding of FIFA's guidelines for sponsors.

The results

Budweiser 2018 FIFA World Cup one of the most successful campaigns for ABI UK in the last 5 years.

In the 4 weeks leading up to the FIFA World Cup, Bud was the No.1 beer brand in the top 6 by volume sales, with Stella Artois in no. 2, commanding 11.8% share of beer.

Budweiser overtook Fosters in sales to become the second biggest beer brand in the UK.