In 2018 Stella Artois introduced “Joie de Biere,” a new campaign aimed at inspiring people to stop and savor life’s simple pleasures, like enjoying a beer. Our challenge was to take this news beyond the ad/marketing world and get consumers – and consumer media – to take notice. To do so we needed to connect the brand campaign insight “don’t let life get in the way of life” to something topical and of the moment. Research and audience insights unveiled that mindfulness (and meditation apps) was having a major moment with millennials… but we noticed there was nothing out there to help you better enjoy your beer.

STELLASPACE is the world’s first mindful guide to drinking a beer. Borrowing mindfulness techniques and incorporating tasting notes, we created a 20 minute sensory guide to being present, enjoying the moment, and truly savoring a Stella Artois. From the pouring sound to the golden liquid, from the malt aroma to bittersweet taste, STELLASPACE encourages drinkers to become less distracted and aware of their senses. By rooting the product in a real target audience behavior, we created a sensual audio experience that made the brand and its quality messages integral to the story. And because we were looking to intercept mindful millennials where they are seeking help to be more mindful and find balance in their everyday, we hosted STELLASPACE in the Inscape app to ensure part of that balance was taking time to enjoy a beer with friends.

Today it’s hard to get anyone’s attention for a few seconds, let alone 20 minutes. As the pace of life increases, being busy has become a dubious status symbol of our time. So how did Stella Artois encourage millennial drinkers to find the 20 minutes needed to properly savor its premium beer as recommended by one of the world’s preeminent beer experts? Time is now a luxury, and living well means being present and enjoying the depth of experiences. To cope, millennials spend twice as much as previous generations on self care, propelling mindfulness apps the top of trend lists, and making the US meditation market worth $1.2 billion. Based on this audience insight, we hacked the cultural phenomenon to take drinkers on a journey far from the busy distractions of their lives to a place of presence and savoring.

To develop STELLASPACE we worked closely with experts in different fields – including meditation experts from Inscape and Stella Artois’ own beer expert Master Cicerone® Max Bakker – in order to create a truly authentic experience for drinkers. In STELLASPACE our narrator and specially anointed slow-sipping expert, actor Luke Evans, personally takes listeners through a 20 minute guide of what to focus on when enjoying a Stella Artois in order to experience the perfect sensory journey. To debut STELLASPACE we hosted nearly 40 media and influencers at Inscape’s studio with Stella Artois’ slow-sipping expert Luke Evans inviting everyone to step into STELLASPACE with him and experience Stella Artois like never before, and widespread earned efforts generated coverage across premium, millennial-focused media.