Ideas We Love: Corona

Issue Number 48: How the promise of paradise built one of beer's most distinctive brands

Hi there. How are you?

Spring is nearly here. A long and very wet winter in the UK is hopefully coming to an end. A change of season brings with it a change of mood. A change in wardrobe. And perhaps, if you’re like Tom, the desire to be a tiny bit more sociable. And from that tenious link, we start this week’s newsletter.

A new campaign from Corona broke online this week and both of us are smitten. In typical Corona fashion it blends a neat visual idea, the Sun and Outdoor; a channel which they routinely use to reach their audience with.

It wasn’t hard to think of or find other examples of creativity in media from Corona, so we thought that this week we’d do a ‘greatest hits’ style installment and write a love letter to the brand that asks you to find your beach.

#1. Rush Hour Sunset 🌆

The idea we reference above. A simple thought : what if you replaced the commercials during a beautiful sunset with something that the advertising might be obscuring? A simple, powerful idea with media at it’s heart.

#2. Luna Beer 🍺 🌙

From sunlight to moonlight…. One of the challenges that brands have when they’re SO well associated with a specific consumption occassion (summery, beach beers in this case) is that you can limit growth potential. This campaign borrows straight from the Ehrenberg Bass playbook and seeks to build permission against an entirely different Category Entry Point (the after work, evening beer) to help access growth.

#3. Natural Billboards 🐂

You can trace the roots of Rush Hour Sunset back to this idea called The Natural Billboard. A clever use of light and time and the canvas of an outdoor advert to land a point about the brand’s natural-ness credentials…. Similar in style to a very good ad by the BBC for their prime-time version of Dracula. This consistent approach - whilst not using matching luggage - is probably what Andrew Tindall at System 1 would describe as an example of compound creativity: an investment in an idea which builds it’s potency over time.

#4. Relaxing Ads ☺️

If you put to one side the techno-babble about using AI and dynamic creative optimisation…., this is a lovely thought: when the world was going performance and achievement mad during the Olympics, there was a big opportunity in telling people to do the opposite. Don’t ask people to sweat or work harder, tell them to relax. When the world zigs, zag.

#5. Find Your Beach 🏖️

The brand’s long-running platform thought. It was even immortalised in a lovely essay by Zadie Smith. Not neccessarily the best creative work you’ll ever see - but another example of compound creativity - and further proof, should any be needed, of the power of a compelling brand platform to provide strategic value in the long term.

#6. Plastic Fishing 🎣

When your brand is built around the idea of ‘finding your beach’, it makes sense that if you were to venture into the purpose space that the issue you’d seek to address would revolve around the impact man’s behaviour has on the shoreline. Along with another campaign entitled Plastic Wave, Plastic Fishing examines Corona’s work in countries like South Africa to protect the countries beaches and marine life through efforts to remove plastic from the water. Once removed, this plastic was then recycled and turned into benches that would be housed along the waterline.

Until Next Time 💕

As always, thanks for reading.

Until next time, cheerio.

Tom & Matt x