How respect launched a beer

The Africa, Middle East & Eastern Europe (AMEE) markets are tough, with many consumers facing constant financial challenges and in some cases, struggling to make ends meet. For consumers who love Amstel, this global beer is seen as a premium choice, and choosing it means that they are happy to pay a higher price because they believe in its quality, recipe, credentials, and most importantly the way it makes them feel when they drink it. There is nothing but quality in every single sip of Amstel beer. In a space crowded with local brands at affordable prices, we needed to launch this global premium-choice beer in multiple markets across the AMEE region.

Nothing but quality in every sip of Amstel.

We knew that to break through the crowded space and be heard above the noise, we needed to make an impact from the start. The difficulty is that we needed to appeal to 10 different nations, so we needed a universal concept that appealed to all 10 nations, allowed for the flexibility and tapped into a universal truth that would motivate consumers to live the brand.

That truth simply being that as Africans, they work long and hard days, that surviving is a struggle and that we all hustle to some degree to make our lives work, which leads to that first rewarding refreshing sip of beer at the end of the long work day with friends in order to unwind. And that most importantly that first sip should be respected as it’s the transition between work and play, stress and relaxation, pain and pleasure, woes and unwinding, quality effort and quality time.

That first sip almost makes the world stand still as we reward ourselves for all the effort that is required every day to win the hustle and get further in life. Using a seamless one shot pan of our hero as we walks into the bar, where his friends are waiting for him, he takes his first sip of Amstel and in that moment the whole world pauses to allow him to Respect Every Sip.

The commercial was adapted and translated for nine markets and supplemented by an integrated social media campaign, out-of-home and below-the-line in which a toolkit was designed to ensure consistency of messaging and imagery in all markets. There was a positive impact on the brand, allowing for a better understanding of What the Amstel Brand is all about (80% have a clearer understanding, 83% have a clearer image). The campaign performed so well under testing that is ranks as one on the best performing campaigns in the Heineken Company.