Cobra taps swinging 60s to give brand ‘tongue-in-cheek’ tone
Cobra is tapping into the swinging 60s for its latest advertising campaign in a bid to break its synonymy with Indian food and expand to other drinking occasions.
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The “Live Smooth” campaign launches today (28 February) signaling the brand’s first concerted move to be associated with new drinking occasions since the world beer launched nationwide in 1990.
A Karmarama -created TV ad introduces the “Boss”, Cobra’s first brand character, who spends his days brewing “impossibly smooth” beer and his nights running a company building “impossibly supportive brassieres”. The humorous ad plays up the aspirational 60s-themed lifestyle of the character in the hopes of giving the brand a more premium feel than previous campaigns.
Cobra plans to use the “Boss” as a long-term marketing platform akin to Heineken’s ”Man of the World” with upcoming promotions continuing to focus on the different aspects of the character’s lifestyle. A series of social media films will run in the weeks after the ad alongside outdoor and PR activity.
Ali Pickering, brand director at Molson Coors, which markets the beer through a joint venture with its founder, says the campaign is the “biggest” for the Cobra brand. She declined to provide a figure but said it was a “significant” increase on its last major £4m campaign in 2012.
Historically Cobra’s marketing has focused on the provenance of the product and targeted Indian food fans, however, it now has the critical mass to go after a broader range of drinker, Pickering adds.
Cobra’s value sales jumped 26 per cent in 2013 according to Nielsen and it was the fastest growing lager brand for Sainsbury’s that year.
Pickering says: “The campaign we’ve developed breaks from traditional advertising conventions from other world beer brands. We’re able to have a lot more fun with the brand through the strategy but at the same time land the complexity that goes into actually making Cobra so impossibly smooth.
“The on-trade hasn’t been a focus for us in the past but because the campaign extends the brand to new occasions we can start to look at it more strategically moving forward.”