Client: Leffe - AB Inbev
Product: Leffe
Title: The National Debate
Media: Brand activation / Ambient / Stunt
Country: Belgium
Date Of Campaign: From August 26 2019 to August 30 2019

Background: In 2011, Belgium broke the world record for the longest period without a government. In May 2019, new federal elections produced an even more fragmented political landscape: political leaders from the Dutch-speaking North of the country (right-wing) and the French-speaking South (left-wing) refused to sit together at the same table. As a Belgian beer brand, Leffe decided to act and avoid beating that world record again. Simultaneously, Leffe – as abbey beer – is perceived as a ‘heavy’ speciality beer too intense for summer, causing sales drop during that period. Therefore, this campaign had two main objectives: - Business: increase Leffe sales during summer months, by stealing market share from lager beers.- Marketing: increase the awareness and consideration of Leffe during summer, by creating a relevant summer positioning.Besides selling beer, the higher purpose was to stimulate politicians to form a federal government as soon as possible.

Idea: 100 days after the federal elections and in a total political deadlock, Leffe decided to open a dialogue between the two regions, by launching the National Debate: installing 1000 tables along the 400km of the language border – turning the border (which separates) into the longest terrace ever (to unite) – and bringing together 1000 Flemings and 1000 Walloons to debate face-to-face.For days, we searched for the right locations to place them, gathering more than 1000 GPS coordinates. Highly targeted lead gen ads sparked interest and got people to register. We brought together one Fleming and one Walloon to a specific table and informed them of the coordinates by mail. There, they were invited to reach a compromise on 10 political questions, put together by a political scientist. All this while sharing a good Leffe and setting that way an example to our politicians.Finally, we delivered the results of the debates in the form of a report to party leaders. In order to help them in their negotiations and form a new government as soon as possible, in the hope of avoiding yet another world record….

Results: While the beer market is decreasing in Belgium (-1.6% total volume in 2019 VS 2018), Leffe achieved excellent results: 1/ Sales: - + 13% sales for August (month of campaign) and September combined.- Behaviour change: Belgians consumed +3% more Leffe in August 2019 (VS 2018). - Leffe’s value market share augmented with +0,9% in a total decreasing beer market.2/ Brand:- Consideration of Leffe as first-choice beer increased by 1% in August.- Total awareness increased by +1.6%, and top of mind awareness by +1.5% (good results considering Leffe is already No. 1 "tasting-beer" in Belgium in volume and penetration).3/ Campaign:- 69% of population reached: 4.8M Belgians on an active population of 6.9M (18-64yo)- 24M impressions in a country with only 11.4M inhabitants. - Free press coverage of more than 40 national and international media generated more than €650.000 in earned media.- Over 31K engagements across our different posts.- On average, participants found compromise in 17 min.