How Fifty took BrewDog's crowdfunding campaign global
08 Feb, 2020
Started by Martin Dickie and James Watt in 2007, BrewDog has grown from a small craft beer brewery in Scotland to a multinational brand with four international breweries and over 100 bar franchises open across the globe.
BrewDog is known for its daring marketing campaigns and its crowdsourced approach to funding. Its Equity for Punks program, which initially launched in 2009 and has gone through several rounds, allows ordinary people to buy shares in BrewDog for £25 a share.
THE CHALLENGE
Having already worked with Fifty on a lead generation campaign, BrewDog sought to use Fifty to run a multi-channel digital marketing campaign for an Equity for Punks crowdfunding round that was looking to raise £7m. The aim was to not only target those already within the BrewDog realm – customers’ from their CRM database – but also get an expanded understanding of their customer base and social following to find untapped audiences in new markets who might be interested in investing.
THE SOLUTION
Fifty ran multiple audience insight studies using both social and CRM data to build a holistic understanding of BrewDog’s UK and international fanbase. Our in-house media buying team were able to map these insights across digital platforms, creating highly detailed targeting tactics across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit and LinkedIn, as well as programmatically through display and video.
The campaign ran in several international markets including Ireland, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Sweden, Finland and Australia, with Fifty’s audience insights enabling campaigns to be targeted to the specific idiosyncrasies of each country. Key tribes included Swedish Digital Innovators, Cosmopolitan French Millennials and Patriotic Australians, which showcases the diversity of potential investors.
THE RESULTS
Across every campaign, on every platform and in every territory, Fifty delivered an exceptional average ROI of over 600%, extending to an increased ROI of 678% on Facebook and 692% for Open Web as a whole. The partnership was particularly successful for BrewDog in delivering growth and revenue in new international markets, particularly Germany and Holland where ROI rates were 435% and 387% respectively.
CLIENT TAKEAWAYS
Combine datasets for a holistic view. Fifty used both BrewDog’s CRM data as well as social data of the craft brewing scene to gain a broader perspective on not only the customers who are BrewDog evangelists, but those who might have an awareness but were not yet converted to BrewDog superfans.
Tailored campaigns work best. Running bespoke audience analysis in multiple markets enabled Fifty to deliver tailored marketing strategies based on the idiosyncrasies, interests and values of each audience. The tribes engaging with BrewDog in Germany were different to the tribes engaging with the brand in Australia, and required nuanced targeting strategies.
Untapped opportunities live in your data. Fifty’s ability to turn CRM and social data into tribes – clustering people based on their shared passions, beliefs and behaviours – can uncover new audiences that you may not be aware that you had. Although niche, Swedish Digital Innovators and Cosmopolitan French Millennials were both highly engaged with the beer culture of their respective countries, and were key audiences for crowdfunding.
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