In 2011, Stella Artois embarked on an ambitious project to promote their exclusive Stella Artois Black variant. The ambition of the project was to create something as unique as the beer. To ensure that the activity stayed true to the key aspect of the beer, the agency developed activity around a single, core thought - 'Stella Artois Black is matured for longer, for a richer experience.'The result was a rich, immersive real-world experience that was hard to forget. It was complemented by an online campaign designed to help spread the word. Welcome to the world of The Black Diamond.

The brief was to create activity that could help raise awareness of Stella Artois Black, a premium beer from Stella Artois, and generate positive word of mouth amongst London’s young opinion former crowd. The intention was to drive interest in Stella Artois Black and help ensure that this beer would be stocked in some of the high-end on-trade outlets.

The product’s premium nature and limited distribution made the use of conventional advertising channels inappropriate, so Stella Artois decided to create a special event that would reward consumers for discovering Stella Artois Black. The answer was ‘The Black Diamond’ – an immersive theatre experience set both in the real world and online. The Black Diamond was a love story following an engagement ring from the point that it is stolen, to its rightful return.

‘The Black Diamond’ had two components to it, the real world experience and the online experience. The real world experience took place across eight East London locations. Online, each real world scene was recreated to ensure that everyone got a chance to enjoy the full story, while also showing the action from a different perspective to ensure that those who had participated in the immersive experience could see the same story from a different angle.

The Black Diamond ran over 2 months in the summer of 2011 in London. Tickets to the show sold out in the first 6 hours and over 2,000 people participated in the real life experience. The show was so successful that it even gained critically acclaimed reviews from newspaper and theatrical publications.