Speaking about the win, Havas Johannesburg Chief Creative Officer Eoin Welsh said, “AMASA is a prestigious media and advertising institution that through these awards celebrates media planning and execution excellence in South Africa. To be recognised by them in this manner is a great nod to what I believe is a fantastic campaign. Kudos to the teams that worked on this, especially our Havas Media team that ensured that the campaign had the right eyeballs and traction in the media space.”
“#SheLovesBeer bravely future-casts in a category where advertising continuously relies on gender stereotypes. We flipped the script and paid homage to some incredible beer-loving women, celebrating their love for beer. With that edge, all the makings of a great campaign were passport: the concept was simple, backed by a clear insight, the storytelling execution was flawless and the cherry on top – the response from the beer community was amazing. The campaign could live anywhere, and it did – on social, in media, and in activations. It is a fantastic example of what media-agnostic content should be, and perfectly posits the future-fitness of the incredible movement,” concluded Welsh.
SheLovesBeer is a movement founded by Hayley Slater in 2016, born out of a vision to celebrate women who love beer, in a space where most beer marketing has either ignored or sexualised women. The movement uses beer as a lens to create conversations that celebrate women who are interested in the beer industry, and a safe space for beer-loving women to exist.
In 2017, Media Strategist Eve Pennington approached Slater with an idea to extend the movement’s narrative through the launch of a SheLovesBeer range of bespoke, limited edition beers. After all what, better message for the movement than the beer itself. She says of the campaign, that “it is a great example of the power of collaboration with media, creative, PR and digital all working seamlessly together to bring to life a fantastic campaign, supporting a much-needed movement.”
The campaign launched on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2017, where five craft breweries were tasked to brew a beer inspired by one of five powerful beer-loving women muses. For this campaign, Havas Johannesburg came up with the concept of the medium being the message and designed the bottle labels with a twist. Each of the five custom-brewed craft beers had labels that told the story of the movement and showcased each of the muses and brews. The breweries and the women involved were:
- Agar’s Brewery brewed the Mamphudi Summer Ale for Refilwe Motau
- Apollo Brewing Company brewed the Two Point Five Amber Ale for Fabrizia Delgi Esposti
- Copperlake Brewing Company brewed the Starry Eyed Blonde for Sally Hatfield
- Drifter Brewing Company brewed the Stoked Saison for Tasha Mentasti
- Mad Giant Brewery brewed the Free Fall Spiced Wiess for Beverly Cosslett
The custom-craft beers were sold in partnership with Beerhouse and League of Beers as collectibles and R2 off the sale of each bottle went towards a bursary aimed at creating opportunities for women in the beer industry.
