With the sun starting to show its face and warmer temperatures on the horizon, more people are likely to start getting together and enjoying the brighter seasons, whether that be garden parties or even just relaxing with friends and family outside. Greene King believes that Old Speckled Hen can play a key part in driving people to connect with traditional ale in the warmer months.
As Old Speckled Hen continues to grow share of the traditional ale category, the brand is aiming to extend beyond its core audience, to recruit new drinkers who haven’t yet discovered the joys of traditional ale, especially around its refreshing qualities.
And as no one has ever said you can’t teach a fox new things, Old Speckled Hen will be continuing to invest in its advertising campaign leading up to the summer months, with the aim to drive traditional, yet refreshing, ale to the front of consumer’s minds.
Having researched the barriers of perception in the traditional ale category, Old Speckled Hen has found that there is a space and need to engage a wider audience of drinker and encourage consumers to ‘try something new’. Challenging those perceptions in the sector, the traditional ale brand will be showing a series of tongue-in-cheek adverts this May, which include none other than Henry the Fox.
David Spencer, head of marketing for Old Speckled Hen at Greene King, shares how the ale brand continues to develop to engage new drinkers to connect with the category.
“We’re passionate about investing in the sector and are proud that Old Speckled Hen is the UK’s number one premium ale. We’ve made great progress this last year, in terms of our share and household penetration. But we know that to keep growing, it is vital for the category that we engage a wider audience with the unique flavours we have to offer. We’ve identified what triggers a consumer to drink ale and in turn what acts as a barrier to others.
“We found that consumers had concerns that ale wouldn’t be refreshing, that there was uncertainty about the flavour they’d get, and that the ale category just hadn’t had much to say to them. Yet a few sips, served and enjoyed properly, could dispel all these doubts. We need to break people out of their habits and get them to give ale a try.
“To tackle the key barriers, we created our advertising campaign, which includes two humorous cartoon animations, featuring Henry the Fox discussing the well-known mantra that ‘you should try everything once’. The animations both conclude that a more sure-fire way to reward your curiosity is to spend time ‘discovering the unique taste of a refreshing Old Speckled Hen’.
“By investing in Old Speckled Hen, Greene King is showing its commitment to the category and its future, and we plan to deliver hundreds of millions of impressions over the next 12 months regenerating further consumer interest in the traditional product and investing more in advertising than any other premium ale. With investment in numerous channels, we hope to continue to drive new interest and uptake in the category.”
Old Speckled Hen and Henry the Fox will be on screens until 21st May on Sky and BT Sport.
