Stella Artois today unveiled a recent creative direction that each builds on and modernizes its successful “Make Time For The Life Artois” campaign by putting an emphasis on casual dining.
As casual dining becomes more common and the restaurant dining opportunity shrinks, Stella Artois is seeking to shift with the market. While previously known for its positioning around restaurant dining, the Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev owned-brand is seeking to utilize influencers and digital partnerships to secure its future.
“The opportunity that we’ve with the brand by modernizing and going after these recent consumers is to essentially give attention to driving frequency on casual food,” said Marcela Garcia, Stella Artois’ vp of promoting.
The campaign encompasses a recent TV industrial, digital, social, out-of-home, radio, influencers and partnerships with platforms corresponding to Yelp and Uber Eats. The campaign will run for about 10 weeks, with the brand new spot, “Table Top,” putting casual dining front and center.
Embracing an off-the-cuff world
Stella Artois has long positioned itself as a premium lager. A major proportion of its business has been rooted in restaurant dining, with nearly 40% occurring on-premise as of 2022. While many brands took successful in the course of the height of the pandemic, Stella Artois felt the restaurant shutdown particularly hard.
In 2022, the brand first launched its “Make Time For The Life Artois” campaign, encouraging consumers to ditch the virtual world for the true one, and to return to responsible in-person dining. While dining out has returned to pre-pandemic levels, take-out and delivery has change into a recent normal for a lot of consumers. With this brand refresh, Stella Artois is seeking to tap into this growing consumer culture.
“The truth is, the on-premise segment within the U.S. has shrunk and the off-premise segment has grown,” Garcia said. “People are spending more time at home cooking, having dinner with friends, and for Stella Artois, which is a brand that’s anchored on food, it was fundamental to essentially tap into this chance.”
As a part of that emphasis on maintaining with a recent consumer base, the campaign puts a fresh spin on Stella Artois’ image. The brand is leaning into influencer marketing for the primary time, choosing talent from multiple fields. While the brand has already partnered with people corresponding to chef Roy Choi and basketball player Kyle Kuzma, it would be announcing recent partnerships within the near future, while also strengthening the ties it has already created.
Additionally, the brand has partnered with Uber Eats, Yelp and Instacart to be able to reward consumer behaviors. Incentives include earning a $50 gift card when consumers purchase a Stella Artois with dinner in the course of the week on Uber Eats, or a free round of the beer when booking a table through Yelp. According to Garcia, that is an effort to be more relevant with consumers at home, not only on premise.
While an increased emphasis is placed on dining at home, Stella Artois’ long standing emphasis on togetherness could be felt throughout the campaign, especially in its newest industrial. A lonely diner crashes through the ground of their apartment, falling into the one below it. The diner contines to crash through partitions and floors, picking up dining companions along the best way until a various group — all having fun with a glass of Stella Artois — is formed. While eating alone and at home could also be more common, the AB InBev brand desires to stay true to the sensation of togetherness seen in prior campaigns.
“For us, this was an awesome opportunity for a brand known for bringing people together across the table to handle these consumer trends and invite consumers in unexpected, authentic solution to come together across the table and have dinner,” Garcia said.
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