In the past, the beer and pub industry has been subject to punitive tax measures. Between 2008-13, the Government introduced an escalator policy causing beer tax to increase 42% over five years. The impact on the industry was catastrophic- beer sales in pubs dropped 24%, 5,000 pubs closed and 58,000 pub and brewery related jobs were lost.

Following five years of successive tax cuts and freezes, the industry was under threat once more as the Chancellor announced he would be increasing beer tax in-line with inflation in the November 2018 Budget.

Britain’s Beer Alliance (BBA)– an alliance between brewers, pubs, pubcos and industry bodies – approached us in a bid to protect their industry from an exorbitant tax increase. We were set the insurmountable challenge of reversing the Chancellor’s decision to increase beer tax.

Long Live The Local. A rallying cry for everything we believe in; our beer, our pubs, our community and our culture. A new movement celebrating the life, vitality, and the key role that pubs play. One that doubles up as a call on government to cut beer tax.

A brand new idea. A rallying cry for everything we believe in:

LONG LIVE THE LOCAL.

To make it feel like it was made by the people for the people, we dressed it in:

PROTEST-INSPIRED VISUAL IDENTITY

A shorthand graphic tied our integrated campaign together. Our pint glass turned exclamation mark became

AN ICON FOR OUR MOVEMENT

A clear simple call to action:

SIGN THE PETITION TO CUT BEER TAX

Each execution delivered our strategy with maximum impact via a simple narrative structure: Evoke emotion, raise jeopardy, drive action.

To overturn a decision from the top we had to create a national groundswell amongst the people. We analysed the architecture of modern movements and identified three key elements of any protest- HEART.HEAD.HAND.

We had to connect on an emotional level and make it feel personal. Research told us that people didn’t care about a few pence on a pint or for the welfare of big brewers so we elevated the problem to the pub- beer duty impacted their bottom-line and they were closing fast.

Applying the story to our campaign architecture:

Heart: Celebrate pubs and their importance to local communities, British culture and national identity.

HEAD: Give people ammunition to justify the cause. “Every day, three pubs close their doors for good” provided real jeopardy to spur action.

HAND: We needed people to sign a petition. To drive this behaviour, we had to make the process of responding easy.

A new brand for a new movement. A rallying cry for everything we believe in: LONG LIVE THE LOCAL.

Our brand-response film describes The Pub as “Our culture. Our identity. The life of the village. The heart of the town. The soul of the country”, then delivers our rational punch. Highly emotional. Highly responsive.

Our long-copy press ad does the same.

In-pub activation kits enabled pub-owners to play their part. Posters, coasters, table toppers, window stickers drove response at the most relevant time and place.

Throughout the campaign social media promoted our film and local pubs.

A massive OOH campaign dominated the country, accompanied by PR influencer activity.

Ease of response drove the design of our mobile-first website. A three-click process enabled visitors to sign the petition and auto-generate an email to their local MP.

We set three key metrics: Petition Signatures, Emails to MPs and, ultimately…persuade the British Government to change its planned policy of increasing beer duty.

MOST IMPORTANTLY… our movement changed the British Government’s mind. On 29 October, the Chancellor announced to the nation that he was freezing beer tax.

Our Long Live the Local campaign created a NATIONAL CONVERSATION.

Response rates dwarfed all previous activity. For the whole of 2017, all combined industry body campaigns delivered just 15k responses.

Our campaign delivered over 164,000 consumer responses in just 14 weeks:

• 116,794 petition signatures

• 48,160 emails written to MPs – an average of 77 emails sent to each British MP.

Politicians also got behind the campaign:

• 70 MPs attended the Parliamentary drop-in event (+84% from 2017)

• 155 MPs actively supported our campaign on social media and in Parliament.