Our creative team went wild when we were given the opportunity to tailor the Garage brand's look to the Hungarian market. However, the introduction of the beer-mix brand in Hungary did not only brought creative excitement: it proved why we keep in mind that we always work for the best campaigns and focus on our client, not just on creative fun. And what's also important is the Self-regulatory Advertising Standards Board thread in the background!
As Fanni Hanzéros (senior account manager) tells us, Carlsberg Hungary, the company behind Garage, has been a long-standing client of ours, and we are currently working together on 1664 Blanc. As they are happy with our work, they invited us to their launch campaign at the beginning of this year. The product itself is a beer-mix cocktail drink, and Carlsberg wanted to break into the domestic market with it. The brand is well established in many places around the world, and now it's our turn.
Balázs Puskás (concept copywriter) explains the copywriting process: ‘The brand is built on the idea that the 18-30 urban target audience can enjoy life without any strings attached. The main element was how to convey this feeling. I was definitely looking for some kind of tension, contrast and duality in the headline, and that's how “Strictly Casual” was born’. Norbert Szedresi (head of design) confirms this, pointing out that the typography shows this duality as well: a tightly and neatly marked first word with freer second one.
From idea to winning a tender
Norbert says the process itself was very inspiring: when a creative team is told to be brave, everyone comes up with the wildest ideas. Accordingly, we brought several ideas to the tender, ranging from the surreal to the easy. The team is always sad when the craziest concept doesn't win, but as Balázs says, it's not a waste of effort. On the one hand, it keeps the creative mind fresh, and on the other, bolder directions give the client a sense of the energy in the team, which is an important consideration when making the final decision.
‘Our method can be summed up as starting from a position of total freedom, then stepping back and scaling our ideas. While creating, we also have to make sure that the idea itself is feasible. That's why we always think in terms of brands and solutions instead of instrumentals. In the end, the client chose us, which is a great pleasure for us!’
Over the past two decades, Progressive has worked alongside legislation and regulatory requirements whether for medicines or other reasons related to specific products. That can sometimes take the work in new directions. This time, because of the alcohol content, the Self-Regulatory Advertising Board wanted to tweak the original concept somewhat, as the Board felt that the original headline could have included an encouragement to excessive consumption. Naturally, we found the best compromise for the client, the Board and the brand, so all that was left was to implement it.
From presentation to practice
During an exciting first few weeks, we worked intensively together to develop the final form of the materials. Finally, the campaign was launched in full throttle in May, targeting the audience from several directions. The use of social platforms and the banner campaign provided many opportunities:
During an exciting first few weeks, we worked intensively together to develop the final form of the materials. Finally, the campaign was launched at full throttle in May, targeting the audience from multiple directions. The use of social platforms and the banner campaign provided many opportunities. The topic and the product were very photogenic and easy to work with. Just as with the banners we could think of general as well as site-specific visual. The festival interfaces were also a pleasure to work on, as were the digital city lights in the malls.
Zsuzsanna Bakos (junior art director) added that it was a great pleasure to be able to step out of the world of core content in ATL communication and present the product with unique, but also brand-related content. ‘We were able to enter the Spar Showroom POS competition with our more off-the-wall ideas. We ended up creating a cool world for the brand with the photo-video content and filling an already great platform with unique elements’.
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Who worked on the tender and the campaign:
Norbert Szedresi - head of design
Illés Simon - head of digital
Balázs Puskás - concept copywriter
Zsuzsanna Bakos - junior art director
Glória Garaczi - designer
Fanni Hanzéros - senior account manager