Brewing up success: An integrated marketing campaign for The Great British Beer Festival
Discover how we generated 13.5 million impressions and drove a 248% surge in Great British Beer Festival searches through fully integrated marketing campaigns.
Challenge
To successfully relaunch the Great British Beer Festival in its new Birmingham home, building awareness among both established beer enthusiasts and a new generation of real ale drinkers, whilst driving ticket sales for the 2025 event.
Our integrated approach focused on establishing Birmingham as the vibrant new heart of UK’s number one beer festival, leveraging multiple marketing tactics to create excitement that would translate into measurable business impact through ticket sales.
Solution
We launched an integrated campaign designed to maximise reach and drive ticket sales, using multiple marketing tactics.
The campaign included:
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Rolling strategic OOH placements to build nationwide awareness
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Implementing an always-on press office approach, securing coverage in national, regional, and trade publications
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Crafting tailored media pitches highlighting Birmingham as GBBF's exciting new home
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Activating digital audio exchange ads targeting beverage-interested audiences major UK cities
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Engaging ten beer influencers to create authentic and shareable content to further promote the festival
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Developing the festival's complete brand identity used across all marketing channels
Our OOH strategy targeted high-footfall locations with 210 train station ads across the UK, and three Birmingham billboards, ensuring maximum visibility during the crucial pre-festival period.
Our PR activity ran continuously, securing broadcast interviews and widespread coverage. DAX audio ads launched in late July for the final conversion push. The influencer partnerships focused on authentic beer enthusiasts with strong engagement rates and followings, generating grid content and stories that showcased genuine festival excitement.
Impact
We achieved:
Out-of-home advertising dominance:
• 13.5 million total impressions across train stations and Birmingham billboards
• High-visibility Birmingham presence with over 500,000 local impressions
PR breakthrough and media buzz:
• 33 pieces of coverage secured across national, regional and trade publications
• A massive reach of 203 million, from targeted media outreach
• 2 BBC radio interviews with festival representatives
• 90% of coverage included backlinks to GBBF website
Digital audio excellence:
• Over 600,000 audio impressions across major UK cities
• Strong 3.9% click-through rate on companion banners
• 5,500 clicks generated from the target audience
Influencer amplification:
• 318,500 users reached through authentic beer enthusiast partnerships
• 9 pieces of grid content plus extensive story coverage
• 10 influencers engaged across key regional markets
Search impact and brand transformation:
• A 248% surge in Great British Beer Festival related search terms
• 142% increase in general beer festival searches
• Successfully positioned Birmingham as GBBF's vibrant new home
• AI search results now feature positive GBBF coverage from our secured media placements