Molson Coors and Rethink Canada are continuing their successful “Beer Fridge” saga. On the Boxing Day Molson Canadian will broadcast its longest so far, three minutes long TV advertisement. The clip “The Beer Fridge – Project Indonesia” will be aired during Team Canada’s first game at the world junior hockey championship.
Let’s start from the beginning, though. Molson Canadian brand is built on Canadian patriotic identity. Molson Coors Brewing Co. tries to build it up not only by sponsoring Canadian teams in major sports events (with an obvious focus on hockey).
In June 2013 Molson together with Rethink Canada agency has launched #IAMCANADIAN campaign with a spot titled “The Beer Fridge”. Branded beer fridges customized so that only Canadian Passport could open them were placed in different locations in Europe.
The Beer Fridge clip went viral, and reached more than 2 million views. It was more than any other advertisement from Canada until this months global success of WestJet Christmas Miracle that nowadays is close to 8 million views.
As the campaign was a success, Molson expands it to further increase brand connection to the Canadian national pride and hockey team that prepares to the Olympic Games in Sochi (Molson is an official sponsor of Canadian Olympic Committee).
Molson asked its 3,000 employees if they knew of Canadians living abroad, who are rabid hockey fans but have a hard time seeing games. Finally Molson has identified a man from the Ottawa area named Morgan, living on the remote Gili Islands in Indonesia. The company sent his two best friends to surprise him with a satellite hookup to watch Team Canada games, and a fridge full of beer.
The short film called “The Beer Fridge – Project Indonesia” they made about the journey will run on TV in full twice, and a 30-second version pointing people to the full video online will run through the new year. Online version of the campaign is available since 18th of December 2013 and has already gathered more than 300,000 views. The fridge is filled with special edition beer bottles made for Olympics. This campaign hashtag is #ANYTHINGFORHOCKEY
From the regulatory compliance point of view the ad itself does not connect beer with any athletic skills (except of trekking, maybe). So even if it is stepping a thin line of relating alcohol to the success in sport, it is on the safe side in our opinion.
Credits:
Agency: Rethink Canada
Creative Directors: Aaron Starkman, Chris Staples, Dré Labre, Ian Grais
Art Directors: Aaron Starkman Joel Holtby, Vince Tassone, Christian Buer
Copywriters: Aaron Starkman, Mike Dubrick
Account Director: Ashley Eaton
Account manager: Scott Lyons
Broadcast Producer: Dave Medlock
Digital Producer: Meg Norton
Digital strategy: Darren Yada, Rafael Gi, Leah Gregg
Digital Designers: Alex Fleming, Steve Lam
Production Company: Untitled Films
Director: Tyler Williams Executive Producer: Lexy Kavluk
Line Producer: Tom Evelyn
Director of Photography: John Houtman
Post Production: Rooster Post
Executive Producer: Melissa Kahn
Editor: Marc Langley Assistant
Editor: Nick Greaves
Post Production: Fort York VFX
Music and Sound Design: RMW Music
Media agency: Wes Wolch / MEC Global
