What’s the Robertson Rally?
The Robertson Rally is a strategic sprint that takes place over one weekend. Students are put in teams and have from Friday morning to Monday morning to conduct research and develop a creative brief. Come Monday morning, students must present their creative briefing to the client and a panel of industry professionals.
The 2022 Robertson Rally hosted by VCU was in collaboration with Busch Light and the Martin Agency. My team, affectionately called Team Tree, placed first out of ten teams.
You can view our creative brief here.
You can scroll through our creative briefing deck here.
We will achieve this by appealing to millennials’ sense of social justice through the One Tree Planted partnership.
Background:
Busch Light was introduced in 1989 as Busch Light Draft, Busch’s first light beer. It has cemented its place as Busch’s best selling beer and is one of the fastest growing beers overall in terms of sales. As for Busch, they are a steadfast brand who knows what they stand for. Their values include modesty, humor, and community. They are partnering with One Tree Planted, an environmental charity fighting for reforestation. For every dollar donated, they plant one tree!
Busch is committed to bringing the great outdoors to everyone. How can Busch use One Tree Planted to drive authenticity and demonstrate this commitment?
Because they are “trapped” in urban areas, the imagery found in Busch’s typical branding is not accessible to them and therefore hard to resonate with.
Objective:
These are people who may care about social causes, but often aren’t found doing much other than pointing out the problem.
Three experiential outdoor advertisements and one social media campaign.
#FREEMILLENNIALS
This combination is perfect for reaching our target as we know they are active on social media and prefer that to taking physical action offline. The experiential ads work because they will be placed around the cities millennials have to navigate in their daily lives on their way to work, home, etc.
The Busch Guy is on a serious mission to get millennials out of their high rise buildings or cramped apartments and back into nature. For him, being trapped in cities is the worst thing that he can think of because the great outdoors is his sanctuary.
This social media campaign will function similarly to the old Sarah McLachlan ads you’d see on TV. Except instead of sad shelter animals, it features our millennials in cities. He will be posting videos calling for everyone to help #freemillennials from cities, with language such as “By donating a dollar to One Tree Planted, we are one step closer to successful reforestation and bringing nature to these urban millennials.” Consider it his version of #KONY2012, Seaspiracy, or the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Busch does not use billboards, instead they pay farmers to display Busch ads on their barns. There aren’t barns in cities, so what if they paid businesses to display a mural on the side of their buildings?
This would be a mural of a forest that includes 3D elements such as vines and leaves. The mural will highlight the fact that having greenery in cities helps to absorb air pollution and is better for the population’s health. Speakers would also play nature sounds to make the experience more immersive. The paintings could also change with each season.
City Forests
Just like McDonald’s once created a giant play place in the city for adults, why don’t we create a forest in the city? This could even be done in something like a large roundabout. We can include benches to allow people an immersive experience inside the forest within the city.
Alternatively, what if bus stops were made into forests? What if ticket revenue temporarily went to One Tree Planted?
Rooftop Bar
Everyone knows that millennials love rooftop bars, so Busch Light will partner with with a local business to create a green rooftop bar. They will serve Busch Light and signature cocktails made with Busch Light. Creating green rooftops in the concrete jungle will provide cooling effects, stormwater management, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and improved air quality. The proceeds will go to One Tree Planted. This can be a recurring event or a pop-up.
ROBERTSON RALLY CREATIVE BRIEF WINNER
THE ASK:
Make Busch Light the standard, not the cheaper alternative.
Problem:
Millennials are living the Busch Guy’s nightmare.
Target:
Slacktivist millennials living in cities.
While our target does care about social causes, it’s hard to get them to take action. So we will bring the outdoor experiences to them in order to raise funds and awareness for One Tree Planted.
The client wants to bring the outdoors to everyone. So we started by asking ourselves, who isn’t accessing the outdoors and who is Busch Light not reaching?
Busch Light’s current audience is primarily middle aged and located in the rural Midwest. Essentially, their audience is comprised of Busch Guys (the brand’s mascot). Due to this, we’ve decided it’s time to target a younger, more diverse demographic.
Why this target?
Where Busch Light’s current audience is.
Target’s values:
Insight:
According to Pew Research Center, 71% of millennials say climate change is a top priority for them.
“[Millennials] prefer to do business with corporations and brands with pro-social messages…and ethical business standards.” Forbes
It’s clear that millennials care about social causes, especially climate change, which makes them the perfect target for Busch Light’s collaboration with One Tree Planted.
However, we also found that, according to the Institute for Public Relations, “...millennials engage in online activism behaviors to a greater extent than offline activism behaviors.”
Which led us to our insight…
This is what is commonly referred to as slacktivism. In other words, millennials need to get outside and touch some grass.
Current Demographic
Target Demographic
Example of Slacktivism:
THE DELIVERABLES
Millennials have a lot to say online, but that rarely translates into action.
Free millennials from their “concrete prisons” by promoting outdoor experiences in partnership with One Tree Planted.
