At the recently concluded Clear Channel Outdoor Planning Awards, a campaign for Fosters won in the ‘best use of outdoor in a multimedia campaign’ category. The campaign involved creating bus shelters and phone booth skins to make them resemble a beach hut. On the face of it, it seems no great shakes. But when you look back at the TV campaign it makes sense.
The TV ads introduced Brad & Dan the quintessential ‘no worries’ Aussies who offer phone advice for callers from the UK, sitting in a beach hut, sipping Fosters. Each phone call involves a minor crisis which is quite easily resolved by Brad & Dan. In Outdoor what has been taken forward is the attitude of the protagonists – not the executional idea of a call center or agony aunt for beer drinkers. According to the press release: the outdoor campaign converted 6 Sheets and phone booths into mini beach huts and utilised interactive 6 Sheets in key drinking centres to reach the target audience of 18-24 year old men.
A case of adapting the creative idea to put a medium to its best use – not just slapping a picture of the 2 protagonists on a billboard. The beach hut became a symbol of the Fosters attitude in a medium which is meant to convey a telegraphic message. Nice.
