XXXX beer asked the people of Queensland, Australia to share their demonstrations of postcode pride (UGC) via social platforms for the chance to win $25,000 or a holiday with Queensland Rugby Team's Maroons players. Content from major influencers; like current players and legends, to micro-influencers; local Queenslanders, as well as user generated-content featured across TV, radio, and social content to share the message of Queensland pride, plus drive awareness and entries.

XXXX is a 145-year-old beer brand with proud heritage from the state of Queensland, Australia. However, in the last decade its legacy had been eclipsed by the arrival of Great Northern, an imposter beer claiming to be from Queensland, that shifted XXXX from #1 to third most popular beer in the state.

For 33 years XXXX beer has been the longest-standing-sponsor of Queensland Rugby League’s Maroons team in ‘Australia’s Super Bowl’, the State of Origin (SOO), which unites communities through footy, beer and mateship.

For the 2023 State of Origin Series, XXXX needed reappraisal amongst Queenslanders with an original idea to leverage their 33-year-long sponsorship of Queensland’s State of Origin team, the Maroons, backed by Queensland Rugby League (QRL). The campaign objectives included increasing sales, changing brand perception and reclaiming their position as Queensland's favourite beer once again.

The Queensland Maroons are a team within the Queensland Rugby League (QRL), in Australia.

The State of Origin Series (SOO) is Australia’s ‘Superbowl’; a best-of-three Rugby League series played between two rival states, Queensland and New South Wales with their respective teams; the Queensland Maroons and New South Wales Blues.

In 2022 SOO was the most-watched sporting event in Australia^, coverage omnipresent in news and media.

For 33 years XXXX beer has proudly sponsored Queensland Rugby Leagues’ Maroons team in the State of Origin Series - the brand is the longest standing partner of QRL

Queenslanders are the local Australians who live in the vast state of Queensland, in the north-east of the continent.

Like most Queenslanders, the Maroons players themselves hail from humble origins. Not big cities, but small regional towns with limited resources for Rugby League, often at the mercy of harsh weather conditions and natural disasters and geographical isolation.

This struggle instils Queenslanders with a special confidence called 'Queensland Spirit'. It’s core to Queensland's identity and is illustrated each year when their State of Origin team compete against a ‘glamourous’ rival state’s team, the New South Wales Blues.

In a powerful demonstration of Queensland pride, a small change made a big impact. The iconic 145-year-old XXXX logo on the Queensland jersey sleeve was sacrificed and replaced with Queensland (4000) postcodes. The logo on the Maroons jersey’s left sleeve - closest to the players’ hearts - was replaced with the postcode of the players’ junior rugby club.

To include and unite all 447 Queensland postcodes, XXXX boldly changed their beer cans’ packaging, swapping branding for numbers. 30-million special edition cans were released so every Queenslander could create and share their postcode with XXXX cans.

Via social platforms, XXXX asked Queenslanders to share their demonstrations (photos) of postcode pride for the chance to win $25,000 or a holiday with Maroons players. Both players and SOO legends featured across TV, radio, and social content to share their postcode pride, to drive awareness and entries.

XXXX used iconic influencers like Maroons players and past legends to spread the campaign and their own demonstrations of pride, before finding micro-influencers local to Queensland via the Tribe platform, and briefing them on their own demonstrations of pride (spelling their postcode with XXXX cans).

By allowing consumers to build their own postcode with XXXX cans, meant not a single Queenslander missed out on being included in this enormous demonstration of Queensland pride, during SOO.

Content was geo-targeted to specific Queensland postcode areas, so people in area 4217 saw UGC content with their postcode featured.

Leveraging opportunities during the State of Origin series, XXXX would force reappraisal, increase purchasing habits and revenue to reclaim what was lost to competitor, Great Northern. Plus, redefine itself from 'an out-of-touch beer’ to a modern brand that celebrates ‘Queensland spirit’ and what they love most - community, rugby league and the Maroons.

30-million special edition XXXX cans with individual numbers were released so every Queenslander could create (spell out) their postcode and share their UGC for the chance to win.

To set the tone for submissions, XXXX briefed 40 Queensland micro-influencers to capture their own postcode pride to seed via their personal Instagram accounts. XXXX shared these across owned Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to inspire Queenslanders’ UGC submissions, which were featured in owned social, digital, earned media and hyper-localised OOH.

7,294 UGC demonstrations of pride were submitted, flooding in from across all 447 postcodes in Queensland, Australia.

The campaign comms were live from late May 2023, while the postcode cans competition ran from 18/04/23 until 12/07/23 - during the State of Origin Series period, coinciding with matches played on 31/05/23, 21/06/23 and 12/07/23.

XXXX’s demonstrations of Queensland pride saw the campaign receive 113 pieces of coverage with a combined reach of 19,594,667 and 100% positive sentiment, including state-wide and nationally syndicated evening news bulletins, radio and online articles, all stemming from the clever use of live advertising at State of Origin events. XXXX’s brand awareness saw a 41.7% increase, reaching 47% of the population. The campaign inspired 7,294 bespoke UGC demonstrations of pride which were submitted on the XXXX social platforms, from all 447 postcodes in Queensland.

XXXX sales increased by 6% increase, more than 1.3million litres of beer and 3.4million cans sold than previous year and 22.4% recorded market share of total pack beer sold in Queensland during the SOO season.