This document outlines a sponsorship activation plan for Samuel Adams during the Olympics in the UK. It proposes creating a character named "Sam Adams", an arrogant American tourist, who will fuel brand fame by criticizing British culture and cheering for US teams. A sampling idea ties free beer giveaways to US wins over UK teams. Vice UK is proposed as the media partner to create webisodes and articles bringing the character to life on social media. The goal is to make Sam initially annoying but eventually loveable as an outsider accepting of UK culture and high quality beer.

1. SAMUEL ADAMS OLYMPICS SPONSORSHIP ACTIVATION
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LET’S BREW SOME BRAND FAME IN THE UK
A RECIPE SUBMITTED BY: HUGO FOURNIER

2. DRIVING BRAND FAME IS LIKE BREWING A GREAT CRAFT BEER
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IT TAKES 4 COMPONENTS
HIGH QUALITY INGREDIENTS
(JUICY INSIGHTS)
A FEARLESS HEAD BREWER
(BOLD VISION & IDEAS)
PROPER EQUIPMENT
(RIGHT PARTNERS)
CAREFULLY RESPECTED PROCESS
(TIMELY ACTIVATION PLAN)
+ +
1 2
3 4

3. —————————————————————————————————-
BEFORE WE START BREWING: CHALLENGES AND COMMS TASKS
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4. TINY INVESTMENT (400K)
CONSIDERING THE OBJECTIVE OF
DRIVING BRAND ADOPTION
BEER-SOAKED MARKET +
CLUTERRED ADVERTISING
LANDSCAPE
WIDESPREAD DISTRIBUTION BUT
LACK OF ACTIVE CONSIDERATION
OLYMPICS SPONSORSHIP
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WE HAVE 3 KEY PROBLEMS
Beyond pure brand building,
sampling and on-ground presence
will be paramount to drive brand
trial and eventually adoption.
Britain has 1,300 breweries per
capita, more than anywhere in the
world. Add on top of this the
Olympics noise and you get an
almost impenetrable environment.
While physical presence is
achieved, the brand is far from
being salient or actively considered
by consumers.
Find the brand story that will
get our audience to ask for
SA at the pub or pick the
brand on the shelf.
Make sure that a considerable
number of SA beers will be
given to our audience.
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TASK: SAMPLING TASK: EARNED MEDIA TASK: CONSIDERATION
2 3
Make an impact and earn a
big chunk of the games’
conversation in the UK.

5. ———————
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THE INSIGHTS
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6. Domestic beer brands have for long time played on the fact that hops and
barley are great social enhancers (e.g.: beer that will get you laid). Then, more
premium players like Heineken have decided to capture the increasingly
sophisticated and globalized characteristics of their target audience: trendy and
hungry Millennials (e.g.: with ‘Open your world’)
In the case of craft beers, the mindset is at the polar opposite. First of all, the
word ‘craft’ means it’s everything but industrial and globalized. Head brewers
make their beer with the deepest conviction that beer can be better (from
production to taste to packaging and so on). They’re generally independent,
stubborn and involved in every step of the production process.
Like their creators, craft beer early adopters are very often part of or at least
familiar with counter-culture movements while ‘regular drinkers’ of craft beers
would see themselves as promoters of the unordinary and the uncommon.
These folks are uber-authentic and they have an intolerance to hard marketing.
CRAFT BEER AND THEIR DRINKERS
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CATEGORY AND CONSUMER TRUTH

7. The beer was named after Samuel Adams, an
American revolutionary patriot, one of the
Founding Fathers of the United States and a
citizen of the state of Massachusetts.
The most interesting bit for us is the
following: as part of the American Revolution,
he was directly involved in a movement
opposed to the British Parliament.
So, not much more to say here.
SAMUEL ADAMS
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BRAND HERITAGE: MUCH MORE THAN CRAFT BEER

8. There will always be some sort of fierce yet fun rivalry
between the 2 cultures. There are several
manifestations in which publishers, brands and even
‘normal’ people spend time highlighting the
differences and take the piss at each others.
And generally speaking, the UK always ‘win’ and comes
out of the cultural battle as the cooler, the more
sophisticated and THE example to follow.
SAMUEL ADAMS
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CULTURAL TRUTH: UK vs US

9. ——————————
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THE BRAND IDEA(S)
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10. The opportunity is bigger than we think as it’s much more than an
American beer sponsoring the Olympics in the UK. It goes beyond
sports, gold medals, celebration and world records.
In fact, the jumping off point is an American brand that has a
personal beef with the UK.
It’s an American beer brand that will for once and for good
show the UK that America can be cool too.
THE BRAND IDEA(S)
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THE OPPORTUNITY

11. The American
beer you will
hate to love.
THE BRAND IDEA(S)
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OVERARCHING PROPOSITION

12. To really bring the brand proposition
to life, we have a bigger idea.
In fact… it’s a sampling idea.

13. We’ll target the top-10 most anticipated events between both nations
(media coverage and hype wise) and everytime Team USA wins over Team
GB, there will be free Samuel Adams beer flowing through the UK.
THE BRAND IDEA(S)
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SAMPLING IDEA

14. A sampling idea that connects to the Olympics’ energy and hype is
effective to drive trial among our target audience but that alone won’t
drive brand fame and earned media.
We need a vehicle that would embody our proposition.
We need a social agitator. A storyteller.
Someone who would be Sam Adams’ biggest advocate in the UK.
THE BRAND IDEA(S)
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IN NEED FOR A SOCIAL AGITATOR

15. PLEASE MEET SAM ADAMS
You get it, we create a character (in fact an
American tourist) who happens to be visiting
the UK during the Olympic Games.
He’s a sort of an intellectual and cynical yet
quite funny lad.
Think of him as a late 20s who’s well-versed &
well-traveled. He’s a Harvard graduate who
looks down on UK culture in general. He’s
seen as a charismatic smart ass.
Above all, he’s American and he’ll be
cheering for America (not just for the national
team, but also praising for the overall
American culture) during his stay in the UK.

16. We use our character to fuel brand’s role of being the ‘official party
pooper’ of UK’s overall Olympics’ celebration. He’d not only be cheering
for Team USA, but he’d also criticize every single aspect of British culture
(food, weather, words, accent, overall cynism, architecture, etc.)
Along with a media partner that we’ll define in a minute, Sam Adams will
be highly active on the usual social media platforms. His implication will
be crucial especially when it comes to the mass-sampling efforts in which
he’ll have to nurture some passionate debates and even attend physically
some of the broadcasting events in identified pubs.
In the phasing of the campaign, we’ll make sure that the perception of the
public towards Sam evolves quite a bit.
The goal is to first make people react in a brash way towards such
annoying character (desired reaction at pre-launch: ‘Bloody hell. Who’s
that prick?’) and then, slowly but surely we make him part of the culture as
an accepted and loveable outsider (desired reaction during and after the
Olympics: ‘I have to admit that he’s funny and let’s face it, I just can’t be
against high quality beer given away for free’).
THE BRAND IDEA(S)
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ROLE OF THE SOCIAL AGITATOR
Oupsy, team USA
just beat you.
Free beer anyone?

17. ———————————————————————
THE MEDIA PARTNER AND ACTIVATION PLAN
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18. VICE UK came up as the most relevant media partner for 3 key reasons:
1) A perfect fit with our audience (see next slide): VICE reaches twice as many
18-34 y.o. compared to other channels - index of 193
2) Relevance and influence: Network of 500 premium publishers for a mixture of
different passion points we can target with our campaign
3) Content creation credentials and hub: Capability to create high quality/
engaging content around our story and to host all of this on their platforms
THE MEDIA PARTNER AND ROLL-OUT PLAN
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THE MOST RELEVANT OPTION OUT THERE

19. THE MEDIA PARTNER AND ROLL-OUT PLAN
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THE PEOPLE WE’RE LOOKING FOR
Note: The data comes from VICE Canada although it gives a good example of the media audience we’re going after.

20. THE MEDIA PARTNER AND ROLL-OUT PLAN
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HOW DOES IT WORK
The entertaining story of Sam Adams in the UK
Propelled by VICE UK in the form of short webisodes and articles

21. THE MEDIA PARTNER AND ROLL-OUT PLAN
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DETAILED PHASING
PRE-GAMES DURING GAMES POST-GAMES
VICE WEBISODES TO ESTABLISH THE CHARACTER
CHARACTER’S OWNED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
PUB ACTIVATIONS
MASS-SAMPLING THROUGHOUT THE UK
PROMOTION ON POS TO SEED THE IDEA THAT’S
SOMETHING IS COMING: SAM ADAMS IS GIVING AWAY
TICKETS FOR RIO!
BRAND
COMMS
PROMO
ACTIVITY
ON-GROUND
ACTIVATIONS
PR COVERAGE
VICE COVERAGE WITH THE CHARACTER DURING PUB
ACTIVATIONS AND OTHER OLYMPICS CELEBRATIONS
RECAP CONTENT PUSHED THROUGH PAID ADVERTISING
WITHIN VICE CHANNELS TO MAINTAIN INTEREST
(E.G.: BEHIND THE SCENE)
INTERVIEW WITH ‘SAM ADAMS’ IN WHICH HE DESCRIBES
HIS EXPERIENCE AS THAT FAKE AMERICAN TOURIST

22. CHEERS MATE!
(sighs)
Ok… thanks
Mate.