Carat dials up Aussie partnerships for Bundaberg Brewed Drinks Summer campaign

:   Being part of a cluttered soft drink category, Carat’s client, Bundaberg Brewed Drinks, were looking to stand out across their key Summer sales period by defending not only their traditional Qld market, but also growing the southern markets of NSW and Victoria.

With domestic travel the only holiday opportunity, the campaign dialled up the Aussie heritage by moving into Australian platforms and content.   The approach by Carat was centred around TV, defined as a COVID-proof environment that grew during lockdowns and provided flexibility. 

The two platforms that would achieve this included Seven’s Summer of Cricket, where it aligned with the BBD moments of sharing, family and Australian.  Also, for the first time, Bundaberg Brewed Drinks sponsored the Best and Fairest Segment where throughout the season, the commentary team voted and crowned a player of the match.  

Secondly, Carat worked with Network 10 on a truly unique activation in The Amazing Race Australia which has been filmed 100% domestically in Australia for the first time.  This platform provided an opportunity for deeper and meaningful integration.

In tonight’s episode of The Amazing Race Australia (1^st March), the founder of Bundaberg Brewed Drinks, Cliff Fleming, will be involved in a bespoke, in-program challenge.  This challenge, filmed in Queensland and home to the world-famous ginger beer manufacturing HQ, will see contestants take part in a ginger harvesting challenge to receive their next clue.

“The Bundaberg brand is steeped in tradition and an iconic Aussie staple for family get togethers. Changes in consumer habits during COVID have allowed us to follow a more intuitive way of building our media strategy. The storytelling creative alongside the more humanising media channels such as TV were the obvious combination for our Brand. We’ve seen more Aussies drink our product than ever in our history which is a defining moment for this family business,” said Penny Glasson, Head of Marketing at Bundaberg Brewed Drinks. 

“Data driven approaches to our media strategy didn’t work during COVID because no one knew what was happening from day to day, let alone months in advance. The world was changing so quickly, and no report could give us the silver bullet on how to best plan ahead. We focused on trying to get a read on how consumers behaviours were shifting and building our strategy around our intuition. We leant on the team to build a media plan that provided us flexibility but also gave us authentic storytelling opportunities,” she added.

“The business has outperformed the category during COVID which is one of the most competitive in the country. Australians are supporting Australian brands and for this we are so grateful. We’ve seen our business shift to 24/7 production capability to meet the increase in demand.”

Craig Cooper, Chief Investment Officer at Carat, added: “Overall TV has seen inflation in this past Summer, but clients like Bundaberg have strengthened partnerships and integration to provide them with effective media reach.”

“Partnerships are not only an important vehicle for brands to align authentically within high calibre content, but also allow a brand to transcend a more traditional spots and dots strategy,” he added.

Team:

Media Agency – Carat Brisbane

Craig Cooper - Chief Investment Officer Carat Australia

Anthea Gaffney – Head of Investment Carat Brisbane

Lauren Sayer – Client Director

Mark Pearson – Investment Manager

Kirsten Bucceri – Client Executive

Leontine De Sutter – Head of Content Partnerships – The Story Lab

Client – Bundaberg Brewed Drinks

Penny Glasson – Head of Marketing Bundaberg Brewed Drinks

Julia McMurray – Brand Manager AU/NZ 

Ioanna Vlachos – Marketing Specialist 

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