We set out to restore Australian community pride with 1m beers' worth of favours.In recent times, local Australian communities have been hit hard. Lack of funding has meant much-needed community-building projects have fallen by the wayside. Community pride was at a real low.Introducing The Tooheys New Crew, a team of skilled tradesman, led by sports legend and Australian household name Paul ‘The Chief’ Harragon. The Crew traveled all over New South Wales, completing community-building projects, free of charge.They have reached tens of thousands of Australians, completed scores of building projects, recruited thousands of volunteers, involved local businesses, and left a lasting legacy of unity and pride in Australia’s communities.

The platform gives the brand a more genuine connection with its consumers – something that the most recent brand review showed the audience craved.It also hit a rare, inspirational nerve, quickly becoming the thing that brings Tooheys New consumers together around what matters most: mateship, community and their own inherent generosity. More than half of consumers who are aware of the Crew say it gives them a stronger bond with the brand and for those who get involved, the rate is much higher. Of those who have seen the Crew, ‘makes me feel more positive about the brand’, scores 70.4%. (source: TNS.)PR elements from ambassador-management through to community relations, sponsorship leveraging, partnership management, events and social-media are incorporated throughout.

Objectives:1. Drive popularity and relevance of Tooheys New;2. Make Tooheys New a proactive emotional choice: ‘it means something to me; I’m proud to choose it’.PR Goals:1. Drive positive editorial across multiple channels;2. Deliver positive-community sentiments and conversations.Audience:Male, 33-50 years, champions of the Australian lifestyle. Mates, family and community are what’s most important to them.Research:Australians are the most generous people in the world (source: World Giving Index 2010 – a global survey based on the Gallup Worldview Poll). This generosity is the life-blood of Australian communities and the key insight behind The Crew.

First we ask the public to nominate causes via the Tooheys New Facebook page or website. Then, the Crew foreman, well-known TV celebrity tradesman Paul Gillespie, short-lists nominations and reviews potential projects.

Once selected, we develop a committee responsible for drawing up construction-designs, managing the tradesmen and ensuring timely delivery. The committee includes an agency-representative who creates and implements the media strategy plus local-community members who help source suppliers and rally community support.The project is completed within 4 days and sees hundreds of community-members helping out. Paul Harragon (and some well known rugby player mates) are onsite, boosting morale and taking part in pub-visits to rally support.

Local press pre-publicises the events and journalists are invited to the ceremonies on completion of each project. Everyone is invited to the pub for a celebratory New afterwards.

Objective: Drive popularity, relevance and adoration of Tooheys New.Achieved: By doing 1m beers' worth of favours and retaining #1 beer status in New Soth Wales.

Tooheys share has increased from 33.9% in New South Wales 2009 to 34.4% in 2011.(Source: share results, Nielsen.)Objective: Drive a positive editorial.Achieved: 9m+ total PR media points of impact from local press, national press, CH9 and Fox Sports. (Source: Agency.)Objective: Deliver positive community-sentiment about Tooheys.Achieved: More than half of consumers who were aware of the Crew said it gave them a stronger bond with Tooheys New brand, and, for those who got involved, the rate was much higher. Of those who have seen the Crew, ‘makes me feel more positive about the brand’ scored 70.4%. (Source: TNS.)Objective: Restore community pride.Achieved: ”We’ve never in our history had the entire community in one place like this before.” Manager, Armidale PCYC.

In 2009, Tooheys New launched an advertising campaign declaring Tooheys New ‘The Official Beer Of The Beer Economy’, based around the notion that beer is used to repay favours, and every favour has an equivalent price in beer.We saw the opportunity to go beyond advertising and create more genuine connections with Tooheys New consumers.Hence, we created the Tooheys New Crew and their mission was to do ‘A Million Beers' Worth of Favours’.Given the brief’s objectives we opted for a PR-driven campaign underpinned by a grassroots strategy, to create genuine and emotional connections.We used traditional PR to drive both awareness and positive consumer-sentiment, social-media to encourage conversations and participation, and community-relations and events to drive direct brand-engagement.Paul Harragon was chosen to front the campaign, being articulate, media-savvy and loved by all New South Wales' fans as the archetypal good bloke.

Lion has a vision: 'to make our world a more sociable place', and for 80 years the Tooheys New brand has played a pivotal role.Tooheys New is a classic full-strength beer and number 1 within the mainstream segment in New South Wales.

But mainstream beers are in decline, as imported premium beer, craft beer and cider categories grow.

Realising that local Australian-community-pride was at a low ebb, we saw the opportunity to help restore this while connecting in a more meaningful way with our audience.