In South Africa, one of the industries hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly been the food and beverage industry.
Stemming from diverse and rich cultures, South Africans have a genuine love for food, socializing and being together. Creating memories and celebrating special moments in restaurants, bars, pubs and taverns relates back to the brand purpose of Stella Artois, who invite their consumers to savour life together in relevant places where people usually do so.
In a bid to spark a movement in South Africa as well as to support the industry in the same way they industry has supported the brand, Stella Artois launched a two-phased initiative for consumers to participate and support local bars and restaurants during the lockdown in a real and tangible way- bringing together the brands purpose as well as what South Africans cherish together.
How did they do it? Together with Vizeum South Africa and Draftline, Stella Artois created an online eCommerce platform where consumers could buy a monetary voucher for their favourite local restaurant or bar. The voucher was designed to be utilised post lockdown when their favourite spots are trading again. Not only does this money go directly to the business, Stella Artois has committed to add an additional 50% of the value of each first voucher purchase which means the consumer enjoy 150% of the value that they paid for the voucher.
It is a win-win-win.
The Rally for your bar campaign was supported by an integrated radio, influencer and online campaign launched over the months of April and May. The first few weeks of the campaign aimed to generate high reach and awareness, rallying the public to get involved.
Radio partners such as METRO FM, KAYA, ECR, 702 and CAPE TALK delivered both generic and live / pre-recorded interviews with well-known foodie influencers such as J-Something, Lorna Maseko and Delish Sisters.
The results? With the primary goal of the paid campaign to generate mass awareness and to encourage customers to visit the rallyforyourbarandrestaurant.com website and purchase a digital voucher. Together, South Africans and Stella Artois have raised in excess of R1Million during phase 1 of the campaign. Providing immediate financial relief to the registered businesses.
- Over 520 restaurants and bars have registered on the website
- 47,430 active users have visited the website.
- 3,565 total gift card purchases/top ups to date
High reach and affinity online platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Christopher Africa AI/Social Auto Responses, Programmatic Network and Geo-Location Display, YouTube masthead, bumper, pre-roll and in-app mobile game videos) provided incremental reach and encouraged campaign interactions and positive engagement.
Reghardt Van Der Westhuizen, Media Account Manager at Vizeum said: “It is incredible to work for a brand that puts consumers and businesses at the heart of a campaign - delivering tangible, meaningful value, in a time when empathy and enablement is in desperate need”
Overall, key performance indicators were linked to driving action. Pushing quality traffic to the eCommerce platform to purchase a digital voucher.
With phase 2 of the campaign starting next week, Stella Artois has committed to maintain, oversee and run the online platform, in the hopes that a movement toward rallying for our restaurants and bars will continue into the future.
“In a time where the world is in a crisis, Stella Artois wanted to ensure that we are having a positive impact on our industry, which is why this was a call for our brand to contribute to helping our industry partners and fellow South-Africans, the restaurants, bars, taverns and pubs in South Africa. We were able to raise over R1 million together with the public! We will continue to drive initiatives have a positive impact for the industry” said Estee Burger, Marketing Manager (Budweiser & Stella Artois) at ABINBEV.