Promo Review - Foster's Ultimate Lad's Night In

Foster’s launched its ‘Game On' campaign in May, with colour-coded ring pulls as an instant-win mechanic on 133 million cans of its lager. The aim was to target male home drinkers in the 18-to-35 age range with total of £1m of prizes, styled around the theme of ‘home entertainment heaven’.
 
They include 50 main prizes of a night at a luxury penthouse fitted with state-of-the-art games consoles, table football and a pool table, a DJ and, of course, all the chilled Foster’s you can drink. The promotion capitalises on the male passion for video-gaming, with thousands of runners-up prizes of video game consoles and games packs also up for grabs - spot on for its target audience.
 
Spending time at home is one of the headline issues when it comes to marketing communications in a recession. So it’s a clever move to tap into the idea of spending little and staying in, and it’s smart thinking before you even start to analyse the rest of the campaign.
 
When the economy falls, the demand for escapist entertainment rises – and what better way to escape than to lock yourself away with a few of your mates for a Pro Evolution Soccer tournament on the PS3 or a Mario Kart session on the Nintendo Wii? Drinks are provided by your new friends at Foster’s, who could also provide the entertainment if you buy a pack with a winning ring pull.
 
The coloured ring pulls mechanic is nothing new, which isn’t important with this campaign, but perhaps it has missed a trick by not tapping into the popularity of online gaming with this target audience. A microsite featuring online pub games, such as pool, would have been simple to produce and would perhaps have created more of a frenzy.

An online games website would also have provided a guaranteed benefit of buying in to the campaign. However, with only 50 ‘Ultimate Lads Nights In’ to be won on 133 million cans of lager, the ratio of winning opportunities, for the main prize at least, is incredibly low. 
 
The promotion also breaks away from the advertising history behind Foster’s, which brands itself as an Australian beer best enjoyed chilled outdoors. Think of its most prominent recent television ad campaign, which featured men walking around in the sunshine desperately trying to find a shadow for their beers. After all, you wouldn’t want a warm beer, would you? There is no connection between what the brand is all about and the trend for drinking at home in a recession.
 
However, this might be being overly-critical of a campaign that is spot on for its target audience, but has perhaps missed out on integrating itself with the classic Foster’s branding.
 
Rating: 8 out of 10
Agency: Steam UK