AgencyUK delivers integrated campaign for Chang Beer

Earlier this year ThaiBev-owned brand Chang Beer appointed Bath-based marketing firm AgencyUK to run an integrated PR, social media, creative and experiential marketing campaign to increase awareness of the product and its new SKU.

Using the “refreshingly Thai” strapline, AgencyUK organised a series of events to create a greater awareness of the brand and showcase its iconic new bottle design to wider UK audiences, supported with Social and PR activity.

The campaign was kicked off with a launch event hosted on London’s South Bank. More than 150 people attended the reveal of the iconic new bottle. Visitors to the launch event, which took place at the Bargehouse in Oxo Tower, were served bottles of the new Chang Beer from an impressive bar designed to emulate a Thai boxing ring. Over 750 bottles of the lager beer were enjoyed by attendees, paired with freshly made Thai canapes from London’s Thai pop-up restaurant Farang. Seb Holmes, Head chef of Farang, confirmed that nearly 800 canapes were served from the Thai menu.

Entertainment was provided in the form of a magician who performed tricks featuring the new bottle. A street artist topped off the evening with a live, dramatic painting of the new bottle. Chang Beer was also joined by notable guests, including members of the Thai Embassy and Everton Football Club legends (Chang Beer has been the primary shirt sponsor of Everton Football Club for over 11 years).

Following the trade focused launch, the consumer facing campaign to generate awareness for Chang Beer and its new packaging amongst the lager’s target audience in the UK, included sponsorship of Machynlleth Comedy Festival. As official beer partner at Machynlleth Comedy Festival, Chang was the only lager to be served on site. The sponsorship included a fully branded, Chang-only bar, a Chang Tuk Tuk that transported comedians across the site, a live artist who painted a Bangkok cityscape behind the new green bottle on the wall of the Chang-branded bar and a lock-in comedy gig with top name comedians that could only be attended by attendees winning tickets via a social media competition on Chang Beer’s social pages.

The final piece of activity AgencyUK devised was a PR stunt and experiential activity entitled “massage in a bottle” in London’s Westfield Stratford Shopping Centre, Europe’s largest urban shopping and leisure destination. Over 1000 shoppers were offered samples of Chang Beer, as well as Thai-style massages in the giant Chang “bottle” that was designed and built for the event. The event also involved the launch of an online competition, where consumers are encouraged to share pictures of themselves on social media wearing a “Chang smile” beer mat. The competition is to run for six weeks, with the beer mats being placed in Thai restaurants in London and beyond. The winners will receive two return flights to Thailand.

All planned activity has been supported with ongoing community management of Chang Beer’s UK social media channels, ensuring that fresh and exciting content is being delivered across the brand’s various platforms. The PR activity resulted in 1.10 million opportunities to see and continues to rise.

Eleanor Huddart, Marketing Manager, Chang Beer, said: “After celebrating more than two decades of Chang Beer, we have refreshed our packaging to reflect the ever-changing face of the land of smiles. Our new premium look has been crafted in rich emerald green glass, with elegant contours and expert embossing that provide a contemporary twist on our proud heritage – the perfect match to not only our refreshed logo, but also to our crisp brew and the tastes of modern Thailand.

AUK has proven throughout the planning, execution and post-event phases of Chang Beer’s new SKU launch campaign that they are a creative and dynamic integrated marketing communications agency that is not afraid to break boundaries with their ideas. They have been a pleasure to work with throughout the campaign period and ensured that all events and activities ran to achieve the best possible results.’’
Saman Mansourpour, Managing Director, AgencyUK, said: “We’re thrilled to have expanded our portfolio of Food & Drink clients with our recent activity with Chang Beer. After being awarded with Food & Drink campaign of the year at The Drum Network Awards in December for our work with Welsh Lamb, we were very confident that we could deliver a campaign of a high calibre, and we’re very pleased with the results.”