Challenge

As a viral pandemic swept across the world, Britain was placed on lockdown and with the hospitality sector’s sudden closure accounting for just under half of typical UK drinks sales, British producers faced a surplus of stock with limited purchasing channels. This spurred Jim Rankin to ask ArmstrongB2B^® to create a campaign which would support his brewing, distilling and winemaking customers at a time when they needed it most.

Strategy

Our idea was to drive was much interest to British and Irish businesses as possible, with a social media campaign that celebrated the benefits of buying local and direct. #RaiseAGlass was a rallying call to be part of a bigger movement, encouraging consumers to discover the many different tastes and flavours right on their doorstep.

Creative

Every week, we actively helped British drinks producers, industry bodies and influencers to spread the positive message of raising a glass to local businesses. Utilising email, social media and PR, we aimed to create the #RaiseAGlass movement, which would last beyond the UK lockdown and cement an enduring pride in drinking British. To show our solidarity, a campaign of visually striking weekly messages was designed in a vintage Russian style, engaging with everyone to share, tag and post their favourite newly discovered drink. 

A campaign landing page was also created in order to track and register interest. Pushed out to RANKIN customers, we encouraged them to get involved and use the dedicated imagery alongside their own products. To make the campaign user-friendly, we created social media guidelines and finally, approaching respected drinks industry trade bodies, we rolled out a PR campaign for maximum exposure.