When Advertising Rhymes With Innovation
The unique and innovative language that made Ceres a love brand in the Italian market.
The happy encounter between an illuminated communication strategy a path of creative experimentation.
Client
- Ceres
Year
1995-2013
Industry
- Food & Beverage
Partner
Bruno Buzzo
Duri Bardola
Category
Advertising, Brand Strategy, Video
Tag
2D Motion Design, 3D Motion Design, Adv Campaigns, Copywriting, Creative Direction, Direction,
Story
Long Story Short
In 1995, the PBCOM Agency, of which our Master Partners Bruno and Duri were then Managing Director and Creative Director respectively, was entrusted with the task of managing the communication of Ceres beer in Italy; Ceres S.p.A. was owned by the Danish multinational Royal Unibrew.
At that time Ceres beer had already achieved a certain awareness and a good appreciation for the product quality, but only in some Target Groups which were not homogeneous; the company’s goal was to expand the Target and Brand Awareness and consolidate/specify the Brand Image, at the same time differentiating it from competitors.
Flood the Town
A payoff is born
The fact that there was already a good level of awareness on at least some targets was certainly a positive fact, but it posed a big problem: the brand image, created spontaneously, was not unique among the different Targets.
The group that worked on the project first faced the problem of finding a definition of “open brand”, which would not conflict with the image unconsciously developed by the various Targets.
Hence the birth of the Ceres payoff that, in addition to affirming the position of “absolute strength” on the market and confirming the choice of the brand across the various targets, it carried within itself a very strong element of assonance that has shown over time, through market research, a very large memorization capacity.
Over time, the need was also felt to create a logo more suited to the brand’s image evolution, to be placed alongside the existing “cockade brand” and it was decided to transform the payoff into a real symbol combined with the word Ceres: a choice that is proven successful, creating an inseparable combination between “Ceres” and “is there”.
Mind The Sign
The ADV Strategy
At a strategic level, a communication Adv campaign capable of guaranteeing a very high level of memorization was also necessary due to the budget level, much lower than that of the main competitors: mainly Beck’s and Corona, to which Heineken was added later on tried to position itself in the segment of “special beers”, to obtain a better result also in the HoReCa channel.
For the same reason, bold visual choices were required, strongly associated with the brand, totally differentiating and memorable.
Puppets
The elements taken into consideration to build a winning image were the night, the metropolis and beer itself, represented as a disruptive flow, a true force of nature. On these bases, which have remained unchanged over time, a particular graphic style has been grafted, already present in the first commercials but arrived at its definitive characterization with the drawings of the then very young character designer Enrico Macchiavello.
Following the self-imposed rule of not representing the Target in a realistic way, Bruno and Duri decided to use animated characters strongly characterized by a unique and unmistakable style. On the wave of the Simpsons and Beavis and Butt-head, figures “from the periphery” were born, always transgressive, real nice and funny “bad”.