Bord Bia - Irish Craft Beer
Putting Irish craft beer on the map!
Highlights
➜ Development of Irish Craft Brewery database & website
➜ Engaging social content strategy
➜ Widespread media reach
The Brief
Bord Bia in conjunction with the Independent Craft Brewers of Ireland (ICBI) appointed &Smyth to aid with increasing the market share of Irish craft beer among beer drinkers. Over the last 10 years the Irish Craft Beer category has achieved strong growth (18% in 2019), but not as strong as was witnessed in the United States. The current market share of Irish craft beer in Ireland is 3.6% of overall beer sales. While research demonstrated that consumers believe in supporting local, at the time of the campaign this had not translated into the alcohol category.
The Approach
Our team adopted a multi-faceted integrated campaign to engage with breweries directly and to leverage consumer trends at the time i.e. staycations, supporting local producers and mapping experiential content. We devised the first database for Irish craft beer (www.irishbeer.ie) and throughout our communications tactics, profiled individual breweries and their product ranges, highlighted the provenance of each brewery and delivered accessible and educational content to inform consumers of the variety of flavours and styles of beer available with the aim of driving perception within the category. In doing so, we were able to demonstrate the vibrant and thriving Irish brewing industry where quality, innovation and a passion for the craft are at the heart of its continued success.
The Impact
In total, 66 independent craft breweries participated in the campaign over an 8-week period which resulted in a comprehensive database of breweries and an almost countrywide representation of the sector. We achieved blanket regional media coverage for all breweries along with some high-profile national media profiles. The social content strategy that was developed resulted in an almost 40% rise on Instagram alone. This activity was further amplified by a partnership with the Irish Times, a publisher of record that has a strong food and drink’s audience.
