A venerable Belgian beer brand is launching a new advertising campaign that includes a trio of radio spots.
Stella Artois, first brewed in 1926 and today owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, is putting its well-known chalices at the heart of the campaign, called “Missing Chalices.”
According to a report by MediaPost’s Agency Daily, the campaign features three radio spots that employ a “heist” theme and imagines conversations between bar patrons who are contemplating stealing chalices: “On Top of This,” “The Belgian Job” and “The Veraggio.” Each of the 60-second spots end with the tag: “Each year, thousands of Stella Artois chalices missing from bars. Unacceptable, yet understandable.”
The campaign will also employ print ads and TV spots.
The new campaign is the work of David New York and follows a January campaign, “Steal Artois.”
“We aimed to showcase Stella Artois’ worth and put its chalice in the spotlight with real consumer behavior that will resonate globally,” Andre Toledo, CCO at David New York, is quoted as saying in the MediaPost article.
The Stella Artois campaign emerges against the backdrop of an increasingly fragmented beer market. According to a report by AdAge, the non-alcoholic beer segment is surging as more consumers explore “sober and sober-curious” lifestyles. The NA space grew more than 30% last year, according to NielsenIQ.
Low-alcohol beers — those with ABVs of 4.2% or less — are also gaining in prominence, AdAge says. Those brands include light beers like Bud Light, Coors Light and Michelob Ultra, among others.
Meanwhile, for more traditional beer drinkers, Hispanic brands are making inroads. Modelo Especial, owned by Constellation Brands, saw U.S. shipments increase 8.4% in 2023, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights. That narrowed the space between Modelo Especial and the resilient Bud Light, still America’s No. 1 beer, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights, despite a disastrous 2023 marketing effort featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney that resulted in a conservative backlash, boycotts and plunging sales.
According to estimates by Beer Marketer’s Insights, Bud Light ended last year with 8.6% of U.S. market share vs. Modelo’s 7.3% share, according to Beer Marketer's Insights estimations.) And Modelo’s upscale light beer entry, Modelo Oro, was the beer category’s No. 2 new product in 2023, according to Nielsen.