Last Christmas, Carlsberg wanted to give something back to its loyal customers and boost sales during the holidays.

Carlsberg SweaterCard – A sweater with a beer up its sleeve.

We wanted to design a Christmas sweater everybody would want.

And what everybody wants, is Carlsberg.

We designed and knitted Carlsberg themed sweatshirts, and embedded a contactless payment technology into the sleeve. Not only did it offer beer to whoever was wearing it, the sweater also made the purchase easier, removing the need to take the wallet out. The user just had to grab the beer and tap the arm on the POS. All of the fizz and non of the fuzz.

Christmas Holidays are a bad time for beer sales. When all the other types of alcohol are going up, beers go down. To boost sales we needed to create an idea that would raise the awareness of the brand, Carlsberg is only the sixth in beer sales in Portugal, and tie it to the holiday season, without media placement, that is focused on the Summer. To do that we got into the holiday spirit and decided to give something back.

Since we, creative agencies, can’t just write credit cards “for safety and security reasons”, we disassembled several cards and reconstructed its contactless antennas, to work as a card without being one. The antennas where then strengthened and stitched to the sweater. Since they were “normal”, although restricted, cards they could be used in any bar and any supermarket with a POS.

The Sweatshirts were offered in our facebook page to 20 very lucky, and very thirsty fans, that promptly used them and maxed out all the cards in just 3 days (offering beer, we hope).

The Facebook Post reached more than 3 million unique users (1/3 of the Portuguese population) The brand experienced a 10% increase in sales in comparison with November and 26% in comparing to last December. This boost was also helped by the vouchers offered to everyone who didn’t get is hands on a sweater.

The sweater was featured in news outlets all over the world, and found its way to several tops, best of the week on CCSP and BestAds, and best of the month at AdForum. And although it’s still 6 months away,

the sweater is already schedule to reappear next Christmas.

It truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

Merry Christmas in advance!