Australian beer brand VB (Victoria Bitter) leveraged Ashes excitement and cricketing controversy between Cricket Australia and Cricket England by releasing a limited edition batch of ‘England Bitter’ which it shipped to the United Kingdom and promoted through integrated guerrilla style marketing which included a campaign jingle.
The Ashes ambush campaign, which was developed in combination with agency The Monkeys, rolled out shortly after the Ashes controversy which saw the Australian Cricket team beat England in the second test which saw England all-rounder Jonny Bairstow stumped in what the English saw as a controversial act not in keeping with the fabled ‘spirit of the game’.
The brand, brewed by Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) – a subsidiary of Asahi – said it was shipping the specially packaged batch (essentially the standard beer with a new cricket-themed label) to the UK for the ‘Whinging Poms’ to enjoy and promoted the stunt through a social-first campaign led by a rejigged version of the brand’s famous jingle backed by press ads, PR and a T-Shirt giveaway at Headingly.
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VB also took out full-page ads in several major Australian newspapers ahead of the third test starting at Headingley (Leeds).
The reworked VB ad jingle, which takes a direct dig at the England cricket team, is a variation on the classic 1968 VB anthem which celebrates knocking-off from a day of hard work with a refreshing cold beer and which has continued to appear in various campaigns for the brand up to the present day.
The reworked lyrics are:
You can get it getting stumped.
You can get it complaining to the umps.
You can get it throwing away your wicket
You can get it invoking the spirit of cricket
You get it if your Ben Stokes
You can get it if you’re the coach.
Yes our beer may be bitter.
But our cricket team isn’t
So England, we’ve got a beer with your name on it.
For when you change your mind.
And that beer is England. England Bitter.
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“We know the English are bitter about the Lord’s Test, but when they’re feeling less bitter we’ve got a beer to shout them … our fresh new England Bitter”, commented VB Marketing Manager Marc Lord. “England Bitter has got their name on it and we’re sending a few slabs to the English Cricket Team to enjoy once they’ve cooled off. We raise our glass to the whole Australian team for securing a famous win in the second test, and wish them the best of luck in winning the series.”
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This campaign follows in the familiar footsteps of brand backed banter between Australia and England often in parallel with sporting contests between the two nations.
Another notable example of this semi friendly, cricket linked Ashes brand competitor campaign was the 2019 ‘Marmite v Vegemite Ashes Banter Battle’.
While VB itself ambushed the 2019 Ashes with the release of ‘VB Tea’, while the former Cricket Australia official beer has an impressive track record of Ashes work stretching back to the likes of 2016’s ‘Earn A Place In The Australian Cricket Team’ (see case study), 2013’s ‘Ashes Scoreboard’ (see case study) and 2011’s ‘Shout The Nation’ which saw it buy the whole nation a beer after England won the series.
The current official beer partner of Cricket Australia is 4 Pines Brewing Co.
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