Stella Artois: JACQUES D’AZUR – THE KING OF CANNES

Credits & Description:

Category: Best Use of Online Advertising

Advertiser: ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV

Product/Service: BEVERAGE

Agency: MOTHER

Date of First Appearance: Mar 1 2010

Entrant Company: STARCOM, London, UNITED KINGDOM

Associate Director: Rob Tregidga (Starcom)

Digital Manager: Joanne Coombs (Starcom)

Strategist: Dan Broadwood (Mother)

Principal: Brian Solis (Future Works)

Media placement: Blogger Outreach Programme - Film/lifestyle Blogs - 8th March

Media placement: Search - Google/youtube - 8th March

Media placement: Video On Demand - Film4/Blinx/IMDB/Film Sites - 22nd March

Media placement: Press - Empire - 29th March



Insights, Strategy & the Idea

Stella Artois’ positioning as a premium beer had slipped disastrously, weakened by new competitors, by retailer discounting and by lack of marketing spending. Slapping a logo over Cannes was no longer cutting it; we needed to plunge people into that exhilarating world of movie industry aristocracy. We knew when he came to us that the exclusivity of Stella Artois could be summed up in one fictitious man: Jacques d’Azur.



Combining the magic of Jacques d’Azur, the Cannes Film Festival and Stella Artois, we would conjure the old world glamour and sophistication of an entire lifestyle. To make our story irresistible, we introduced our hero by killing him off. Everybody knows you can convince people that a celebrity has died, at least for a Twitter-second. But can you convince the entire UK of the existence of a celebrity who has never lived? To do that, we had to convince Google.



Creative Execution

We started with just 30 influential film bloggers from a variety of countries, reflecting d’Azur’s global renown. Our hero’s name would be dropped into the same sentence as Brad Pitt. His behaviour would appear on a list of “Ten Wildest Cannes Moments”. We were ready for the Googling with our search optimisation, and we directed queries to a Facebook fan site and a fake Wikipedia page.

And then he disappeared. “Where’s Jacques?” our bloggers began asking. Fake news items on film and lifestyle sites reported how he had gone missing. Tributes and heartfelt videos from close friends and old Cannes accomplices appeared on YouTube and on industry blogs. We placed many of them as video pre-rolls.

Even the UK film bible Empire magazine ran an official obituary of d’Azur.



Results and Effectiveness

Don’t believe Jacques d’Azur exists? Google him. You’ll get at least 2.5 million results. Over 13 million people read a blog about him. Over 6 million watched a video. Each blog post generated an average of 20 different online conversations on the blogger’s site, reaching a community of over 2,700 people per post.

Brand consideration rose 7 per cent and quality perception jumped 8 per cent.

The response to the Stella Artois competition to take d’Azur’s coveted spot at Cannes was simply overwhelming. More than 100,000 people wanted to be Jacques d’Azur.