DB Export Brewtroleum

Background

New Zealand was once a nation of proud, beer drinking men but over the past few years, mainstream beer consumption had slumped. For a variety of reasons, men were finding it harder and harder to get to the pub.

What New Zealand men didn't need was another cliche´d beer ad. What they needed was a great excuse to drink DB Export. So that's what they were given.

Idea

The idea was to turn drinking beer into a selfless act of environmental heroism. To do this, ethanol was extracted from the surplus yeast leftover from the brewing process. This ethanol was then turned into a clean-burning biofuel called DB Export Brewtroleum - meaning every time a man drank DB Export, he was helping to save the entire world.

Thanks to the dedication of DB Export drinkers, 58,000 tonnes of yeast slurry was turned into 300,000 litres of biofuel. Every day, a fully branded tanker delivered Brewtroleum to 60 service stations throughout the country, as well as to their very own flagship Brewtroleum station positioned in the heart of New Zealand's biggest city.

Its nationwide distribution saw DB Breweries become the first company in the world to make beer-derived biofuel commercially available.

Results

Pick up of the campaign spread far and wide. All major news outlets in NZ reported the story and it was taken up around the world.

Brand and sales results were unavailable at the time of going to press since the campaign only launched in July 2015.

Our Thoughts

At Cannes, Volvo’s “Lifepaint” won a plethora of awards. I heard that when Grey London first presented the idea to Volvo there was bewilderment. “But what is it? Is it an ad?” “Well, no, it’s er...a paint.” The presentation of this idea must have been much the same. “You want us to make a bio-fuel? In God’s name, why?” “Because it’s a story, a story that will run and run.”

Advertising is no longer about making advertisements, it is about giving people the material to create stories of their own about the brand. And every day in New Zealand there will be motorists talking to each other about their cars running on beer.

Mould-breaking work from one of the three most exciting agencies in the world.