Internet powers $4 m Cascade promotion (video)

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Australia’s oldest brewery has chosen the internet as its media of choice to spearhead a new $4 million advertising campaign to promote its range of premium beers.

Launching a major advertising campaign on the internet is an unusual and bold step that highlights the ability the medium has for reaching targeted consumer groups.

Ben Summons, group marketing manager premium beer, said Cascade had decided to spearhead the campaign with an internet launch because its target consumers spend a lot of time online at work and home.

The internet is an excellent vehicle for building word of mouth around the idea. If people like the ad they will pass it on to friends as a recommendation.

“The Natural Order” campaign

The Natural Order brings the new look Urban Tiger to life and a collection of shady characters, each represented by an animal head and a human body
The Natural Order brings the new look Urban Tiger to life and a collection of shady characters, each represented by an animal head and a human body. Eric Fitzgerald

Fosters has been allocating more dollars in its marketing mix to online in recent years. While the total online dollar investment is still small compared to traditional advertising mediums, it is growing and looks likely to continue to do so.

The innovative Cascade The Natural Order campaign features human actors with computer generated animal heads in an urban environment and combines the forthcoming 60-second television commercial with an entertaining interactive internet website.

The multi-media website features downloads of the characters from the slick film noir style television commercial that can be used as avatars in chat programs, wallpaper for social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook, and online games.

Cascade has also created MySpace and Facebook pages for the characters used in the commercial allowing people to interact further with the campaign.

Graphics files in a range of sizes from 800 x 600 to 1,680 x 1,050 can also be downloaded and used as desktop backgrounds on PCs or Mac’s.

Mr Summons said development of the website provides a rich environment to explode the brand idea and allow consumers to interact with the brand.

The suave hero

The unique campaign is centred around a cool-mannered urbanised Tasmanian tiger who beats a similarly urbanised chimpanzee and his sleazy cohorts cheating at a game of poker in the back room of a neighbourhood bar.

“We wanted to give Cascade’s icon, the Tasmanian Tiger, a personality. Bring him to life in a gritty urban setting” — Michael Knox, Creative Director, BADJAR Ogilvy
“We wanted to give Cascade’s icon, the Tasmanian Tiger, a personality. Bring him to life in a gritty urban setting” — Michael Knox, Creative Director, BADJAR Ogilvy aussieyabber

The slick 60-second commercial was produced in New Zealand by BADJAR Ogilvy and took five months to make.

The production utilises the talents of Academy Award winning director of photography John Seal, as well as a team of six mask-makers and computer generated imagery to add life to the 18 different characters in the ad.

The advertising campaign is a strategic change of direction by Cascade, which in the past has focused its attention on promoting the purity of the water and ingredients used in its beers, as well as its traditional brewing methods.

According to Mr Summons, “drinkers have long recognised the Cascade range of beers for their superb quality and heritage.

We needed to take the next step and engage not only their minds, but their hearts as well by bringing the tiger to life with loads of personality and in an engaging way.”

In maintaining its responsible consumption of alcohol policy the online promotion liberally displays the “enjoy responsibly” message, while people wishing to visit the site must signify that they are over 18-years-old by entering their birth date.

The website caters for PC and Macintosh users, while the streamed commercial is available for users with dialup, medium broadband, or high speed broadband connections.

Intending visitors to the site must signify they are over 18-years-old
Intending visitors to the site must signify they are over 18-years-old Eric Fitzgerald

While the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was listed as extinct by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in 1986, the snappy campaign by Cascade is sure to fuel renewed interest in the hapless marsupial which was hunted out of existence as a result of private and government sponsored bounty schemes between 1830 and 1909.

The television launch of the campaign will be seen across Australia at 8.30pm on Sunday during episodes of CSI and Criminal Minds. For those who wish to view the ad and download the cool graphics used in it the website is located at http://www.thenaturalorder.com.au/tvad/

Cascade Premium is ranked number sixth in volume sales in the Australian premium beer market while Cascade’s parent company, Foster’s Group, is ranked number one in volume sales and value of sales in the Australian premium beer market.

 

 

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John Le Fevre is an Australian national with more than 40 years experience as a journalist, photographer, videographer and editor.

He has spent extensive periods of time working in Africa and throughout Southeast Asia, with stints in the Middle East, the USA, and England.

He has covered major world events including Operation Desert Shield/ Storm, the 1991 pillage in Zaire, the 1994 Rwanda genocide, the 1999 East Timor independence unrest, the 2004 Asian tsunami, and the 2009, 2010, and 2014 Bangkok political protests.

In 1995 he was a Walkley Award finalist, the highest awards in Australian journalism, for his coverage of the 1995 Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) Ebola outbreak.

Most recently he was the Thailand editor/ managing editor of AEC News Today . Prior to that he was the deputy editor and Thailand and Greater Mekong Sub-region editor for The Establishment Post, predecessor of Asean Today.

In the mid-80s and early 90s he owned JLF Promotions, the largest above and below the line marketing and PR firm servicing the high-technology industry in Australia. It was sold in 1995.

Opinions and views expressed on this site are those of the author’s only. Read more at About me

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One Response to "Internet powers $4 m Cascade promotion (video)"

  1. SocialNetworking   August 6, 2008 at 10:29 pm

    Nice Article On Social Networking ! Thank you for keeping up the good work. I look forward to returning to your Social Network space, and learning more about Business Social Networking from you !

    Reply

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