Lowe rebuilt Staropramen’s beer factory in Bucharest’s Underground

Cristina Blanaru Case Studies, Creativity

Lowe&Partners recently made a project for Staropramen, building a beer factory inside Bucharest’s Underground, in Victoriei Station, in order to create a relevant brand experience.

Aura Toma, Managing Director Lowe & Partners, gave us more details on this project.

Aura-Toma

AdHugger: How did you come up with the idea of building a beer factory in Bucharest’s Underground? Why Victoriei station? 

Aura Toma: Together with Initiative (media company part of Lowe group), we chose a context-space to create a relevant brand experience, in order to encourage consumers to experience Staropramen’s world. Victoriei Square is one of the 2 subway stations in Bucharest that has the highest traffic.

AdH: What was the strategic motivation for this project?

A.T.: To complement the new image campaign, we wanted to create Staropramen brand experience and the “beer factory”, made as close as possible to the image in real life, is a nice way beer consumers are involved in brand’s story. Beer is a social drink by definition, so that we were able not only to describe, but also, moreover, we tried to show to the potential consumers what Staropramen quality and the craftsmanship at the basis of a Prague beer with tradition mean.

AdH: Why did you choose OOH as medium? 

A.T.: It is a very good medium for an authentic experience as complete and as real as possible

AdH: The campaign also included sensorial marketing elements. How did you decided to choose this option and why? 

A.T.: We needed for the potential consumers to have a direct contact with Staropramen brand values – quality, tradition, on the ‘seeing is believing’ principle.

Sensorial marketing elements were introduced in a natural way as we all know that we associate instantaneously the sound of the beer poured in a glass with the crave to drink a cold beer

AdH: Was this project declined on other channels also, or just Underground?

A.T.: It was implemented as a premiere in Victoriei Subway station, but we’re thinking of replicating the experience also in other places

AdH: What was the impact of the campaign? How efficient was sending the message in the Underground? 

A.T.: An indicator could be the fact  that many passersby made photos with Staropramen “beer factory” and, later, we found those photos posted on Facebook, tagging the brand. This is a beautiful effect, of the interaction between people and brand, and we are happy that the idea of Lowe&Partners creatives was received so well.

AdH: Staropramen is active on a very crowded market. How does the battle with Romanian beers that claim local inheritage goes? Is the Czech origin more appealing for consumers? 

A.T.: Staropramen is still a new beer on the Romanian market and activates in a segment that is indeed very crowded, close to nicely built beer brands. But this makes it even more interesting for us to create for Staropramen campaigns with impact.

This attraction of consumers towards Czech beer and, in Staropramen’s case, towards Prague beer is due to its quality; they know this beer is one of the most appreciated in the world

AdH: What was client’s reaction when you came up with the proposal to move the beer factory in the Underground?

A.T.: “Yees! When?”

AdH: What was the budget for this activation?

A.T.: We can say the achieved results were way surpassed by far the invested budget

AdH: What were the teams – client and agency – “guilty” for this project? 

A.T.: Staropramen’s team included  Ioana Bondrila – Senior Brand Manager and Andreea Luca – Junior Brand Manager. From Lowe&Partners, the team included Manuela Gogu – Creative Director, Marina Cordun – Copywriter, Claudia Pascu – Art Director, Alexandra Andone – Senior Account Manager, Mihaela Pegulescu – Account Manager. The media team was from Initiative and included Daniel Andronic, Silvia Zbarcea and Dan Togea.

Lowe’s creative strategy also included decorating elevators in Bucharest’s business centers, bringing inside the atmosphere of a Prague bar, under the tagline “Lift your spirit with Staropramen!”.

The unconventional brand activation included OOH with national coverage, TV ad, print, in-store mechanism in 120 key account stores, special elevators projects in Bucharest and Cluj and the special project in Victoriei underground station.

Lowe & Partners Romania is member of the same group of companies that includes Initiative, BON, GolinHarris, Senior Hyperactive, Mobile Works and Medic One. With multiple national and international awards (at competitions such as

  • Epica, Clio, New York Festivals, Cresta, Golden Hammer, Effie, Ad’Or, AdPrint), Lowe & Partners is active on Romanian market for 20 years and has in portfolio clients such as
  • Bancpost, Bergenbier S.A., Terapia Ranbaxy, Unilever (Domestos, Cif, Rexona, Rama, Clear, Signal, Delikat), Johnson & Johnson or Romanian Red Cross.