Young and Rubicam plans to ambush poster sites around the Stella Artois
Tennis Tournament next week with a spoiler campaign for its premium
lager client, Kronenbourg 1664.
The poster features Franois, the Gallic bar-owner from the Kronenbourg
1664 television campaign, opening a bottle of the lager and looking
sternly out at the viewer, accompanied by the line: ‘Tennis? I prefer
the French Open.’
Stella Artois is brewed in Belgium, while Kronenbourg 1664 is originally
French.
The 48-sheet posters will appear within a one-mile radius of the Queen’s
Club in West Kensington, where the tournament is being held. They will
be supported by press ads in the sports pages of national newspapers.
Brian Crean, the marketing controller for Kronenbourg 1664, said: ‘The
campaign highlights the fact that Kronenbourg 1664 is Europe’s ‘number-
one seed’ in the premium bottled lager rankings and capitalises on the
high profile that tennis enjoys at this time of year.’
The press and poster work forms part of a pounds 6 million marketing
drive for the brand, which includes television and cinema ads,
sponsorship and sales promotion.
Y&R’s campaign for Kronenbourg 1664 broke with a series of commercials
last autumn, which used the strapline: ‘The best-loved premium beer in
France.’ It centres on a droll bar owner who longs for the quiet life
and moans about the popularity of Kronenbourg 1664 because it keeps his
bar so busy.
The new poster and press ads were devised by the creative director, Mike
Cozens, and the art director, Anita Davies. Media is bought by the Media
Centre.
The pounds 4 million Stella Artois account is held by Lowe Howard-Spink.
The brand’s long-running TV, press and poster campaign uses the endline:
‘Reassuringly expensive.’
