title: axe the beer tax - voodoobytes
TRANSCRIPT
Case Study -‐ Axe the Beer TaxPrepared by Laurence Gillian and David Z Obadiah
Title: Axe the Beer Tax PoliAcal campaign case study
Contact: David Z Obadiah [email protected] Laurence Gillian [email protected] 020 7387 2049 www.voodoobytes.co.uk
20a Brownlow Mews, London, WC1N 2LA Part of VooDooDog Ltd.
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Overview
Brief from Apex Communica4onsTo provide cost effecAve strategy and development to enable the BriAsh Beer and Pub AssociaAon to increase public awareness about the escalaAng rise in beer tax. This rise in beer tax was causing an epidemic of pub closures that the BBPA wanted to bring to the aWenAon of parliament. The main objecAve was therefore to lobby parliament over this issue.
Our responseWe developed a six month digital campaign plan based around a brand idenAty which we created for the campaign. During the research phase we idenAfied the weaknesses with exisAng digital lobbying campaigns and developed our own bespoke system. We delivered a website which allowed supporters to easily lobby their MPs, pledge support and get updates during the campaign. As things progressed we tailored the campaign around policy changes and used sporAng events to increase awareness. At the end of the iniAal six month period, we had lobbied over 40,000 MPs, had full industry support and ensured that the campaign had been featured in the naAonal papers.
Facts60,000+ MPs lobbied 140,000+ members of the general public pledged supportFirst online MP lobbying systemFirst text message lobbying systemMPs took noAce, with over 120 supporAng the EDMIndustry wide support, Endorsed by CelebriAes Campaign DuraAon -‐ 2009 -‐ 2011.Client -‐ Apex CommunicaAons Euros RSCG
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DetailsThe StoryWorking in partnership with Apex CommunicaAons Euros RSCG, we provided strategy and development for the ‘BriAsh Beer and Pub AssociaAons’ (BBPA) key campaign to lobby government over beer tax. The campaign brief was to increase the general publics awareness of the plight of increasing beer tax that faced local pubs. The combinaAon of tax increases and economic downturn had resulted in over 47 pubs closing every week. We developed a campaign idenAty and branding around the slogan -‐ ‘Axe the Beer Tax’ and quickly set about planning the campaign that was originally intended to run for 6 months.
Our first priority was to develop a campaign website which enabled people to access campaign materials and informaAon, as well as a key funcAon that allowed people to lobby their local MPs directly from the website. Whilst researching other poliAcal campaigns we found nearly all had a web presence, but the call to acAon -‐ ‘lobbying your MP’ -‐ always involved the supporter prinAng off a leWer, replacing fields, finding their MPs address, and posAng the leWer.
We idenAfied this as a huge stumbling block and starAng exploring developing a system to address this issue. A bespoke lobbying system was developed that allowed the supporter simply to enter their name and post-‐code, automaAcally producing a prewriWen leWer/email customised for their local MP. With a click on the mouse, the email was sent to the MP and the supporter was recorded in our CRM system. This direct contact of campaigner to MP rapidly increased the campaigns tracAon and in most cases lead to the supporter receiving an email from their local MP.
We later added addiAonal funcAonality that allowed MPs to register there support for the campaign publicly, the ability to lobby local candidates as well as collecAng more advanced segment data.
The digital campaign was combined with a tradiAonal print campaign to give pub owners the facts. We also developed a series of point of sale materials that engaged locals to support the campaign, signup and lobby their local MP. Apex CommunicaAons also worked to enlist the support of celebriAes and successfully achieved campaign placement in key publicaAons and naAonal newspapers.
At the end of the six month campaign we had successfully fulfilled the iniAal brief and our work had resulted in over 40,000 members of the general public acAng on our call to acAon and lobbying their local MP. This success resulted in the conAnuaAon of the campaign, allowing us to develop further tools, such as ‘lobby your MP by text message’, integrated campaigns Aed to major sporAng events, and the leveraging of our supporters email addresses by using advanced targeAng and segmentaAon to provide relevant campaign news (sector/locaAon/job) as well as further calls to acAon, such as support for Early Day MoAons (EDMs).
With the change of government policy it became clear the focus and goal of the campaign needed to change too. We therefore recommended a rebrand of the campaign and changed the campaign slogan to ‘Back the Pub’. When the campaign ended we had driven over 140,000 people to support the campaign, with over 60,000 lobbying their MP.
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Campaign images
Celebrity supporter -‐ Jennifer Ellison
Industry support -‐ Fuller’s Brewery
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Campaign images
Press Stunt with Mr Pinty character
InteracAve widget -‐ ‘Beer Tax O Meter’
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Campaign images
Homepage takeover -‐ Budget day
Pub poster 1 of 10 -‐ 2009
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Campaign images
IniAal Design Work
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Campaign images
Campaign rebrand -‐ ‘Back the Pub’
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Campaign images
World Cup Special
Campaign widget on supporters blog
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The CompanyAbout VooDooBytesVooDooBytes are a fresh, free-‐thinking, fully independent digital studio based in the creaAve heart of London’s Clerkenwell. Founded in early 2011 by Laurence Gillian and David Z Obadiah, VooDooBytes’s builds and expands on the creaAvity and success of VooDooDog animaAon.
We work directly with clients, as well as augmenAng larger agencies, to develop genuinely effecAve digital strategies and campaigns. We pride ourselves on producing work that really works. That means we give you measurable success, improved consumer engagement and ideas that really do get noAced.
We don’t believe in offering the same old soluAons. That, in itself, makes us different.
hWp://www.voodoobytes.co.uk/
Benefits of working with VooDooBytes include:
Teams always include at least one qualified Umbraco DeveloperExperience with large content management projects (50,000+ pages)Experienced in CMS migraAons and data cleansingHighly commiWed to Umbraco soluAonsTeam heritage of working on Ame criAcal high exposure projectsAble to supply content creaAon through VooDooDog (video, animaAon, etc)
About VooDooDogThe founding company VooDooDog is an EMMY nominated award winning animaAon studio founded in 2003. It has worked with many Hollywood studios, including Universal, Columbia, Fox, HBO, New Line Cinema and TV Studios such as Sky, Channel 4 and the BBC.
The studio also has many corporate and PR clients, including Reuters, Lloyds Bank, Stella McCartney, Saudi Aramco and Euros RSCG. Accolades include an EMMY nominaAon for best Atle sequence design for the Golden Globe winning HBO/BBC film “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers”, three gold metals at the New York FesAvals and has been nominated at the BriAsh AnimaAon Awards.
hWp://www.voodoodog.com/
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