What it had to solve
Lift the nation's spirits as pubs reopened under distancing rules, and celebrate that Britain could finally share a socially distanced beer together.
The idea
The world's first TV ad you can (kind of) drink: animated characters decide to give Britain free beer, and QR codes on screen redeem 45,000 real DoorDrop deliveries.
How it works
Animated Camden Town Brewery and its fictional staff — Half Pint, Pub Cat — drawn by four illustrators (Guy Field, Sophie Koko Gate, José Fatkinson, Bridget Meyne) with director James Papper; aired on BT Sport during the Champions League semi-finals and final and on Channel 4, with six, 12 and 24 packs delivered fresh, never pasteurised.
What it did
Over 45,000 free beers given away, redeemable immediately through the TV via QR scan; part one of the 'Fresh as Hells' campaign.
Background
Camden Town Brewery, which had spent 2020 supporting hospitality, NHS staff and charities, wanted to mark the moment Britain could finally enjoy a socially distanced beer together — and to do it, it made what it calls the world's first TV ad you can (kind of) drink. Viewers who kept an eye out for the QR codes in the advert and scanned them with their phone camera could win fresh, never pasteurised Camden Hells Lager delivered to their door, in six, 12 and 24 packs, from a pot of 45,000 free beers.
The ad itself is an animated Camden Town Brewery staffed by fictional characters drawn from the beer team — Half Pint, who flip flops between optimism and pessimism, and Pub Cat, who identifies as 5% cat and 95% Glaswegian with a strange fascination for QR codes. Director James Papper worked with four illustrators from Blink's London animation studio: Guy Field, Sophie Koko Gate, José Fatkinson and Bridget Meyne.
Created by Wieden+Kennedy with Bountiful Cow on comms planning and W on PR, it launched during the Champions League semi-finals on 18 and 19 August, aired through the final on 23 August and ran on Channel 4 across two weekends. Creatives Adam Newby and Will Wells were blunt about the mechanic: 'You cannot actually drink through your TV. So we decided to incorporate the innovative advertising technology of Q-R-codes... A beer advert you can drink — take that 2020!'
Why it lands
Lockdown research showed one in three Brits missed sharing a beer with friends more than anything else.
Pubs were reopening under distancing rules, so beer at home with friends was the one occasion that mattered.
A beer category famous for dull advertising needed a mechanic, not another freshness claim.
QR codes let the TV spot deliver its own product, merging medium and message.
What you can take
Let the medium redeem the message: a QR code turns airtime into a delivery channel, so the ad's promise — free fresh beer — is fulfilled from the sofa.
Since then
The giveaway ran through the Champions League semi-finals, final and two Channel 4 weekends from 18 August 2020, as part one of the 'Fresh as Hells' campaign; the source records no redemption figures.
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