AdMiration feature: Stella Artois’ “Missing Chalices”

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we researched Stella Artois’ “Missing Chalices” ad.

The ad is part of a campaign produced by David, a creative agency born in the legacy of David Ogilvy, that tells the tale of missing Stella Artois glasses finding new homes.  

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad opens to soothing elevator music and an unfocused visual of some glasses inside a cupboard. The shot begins to progressively zoom in and goes into focus on a Stella Artois chalice tucked away among the glassware. Another scene opens with a shot zooming into a Stella Artois chalice on a sink drying rack after being washed. The viewers then see the same chalice wrapped in bubble wrap, packed in a box ready to be moved out. 

The music continues with the lyrics “I don’t know how I got here, baby,” the audience sees the Stella chalice in a number of different settings — on a dinner table, a dishwasher and another cupboard. A message then appears on a black background saying “Each year, thousands of chalices go missing from bars.” 

Finally a chalice is seen inside a coat pocket and the ad concludes with the words “Unacceptable, but understandable.”

3 facts

• The ad scores in the top 10% of all UK ads in potential to drive immediate sales and top third in potential to build brand equity and generate sales in the long-term. 

• It is highly unique and differentiated; focusing on a consumer behaviour to drive a message of quality rather than showcasing the product.

• People find it extremely relatable, which helped drive a strong overall love reaction for the ad.

2 learnings

• Establishing brand assets beyond the logo and product can allow for more flexibility in the way your brand shows up in advertising.

• Tapping into the way consumers interact with your brand beyond product consumption or usage in advertising can truly differentiate your brand from competitors driving further relatability.

1 reflection

Are you clear on the different instant associations that are conveyed by each of your brand assets? Understanding the different ways your brand assets contribute to a total brand image can inform how to best utilize them in your communications to convey the associations you are trying to land.

The ad was created on the basis of a consumer behavior that Stella Artois noticed: That consumers have a tendency to take their chalices home with them. Stella Artois acknowledges and makes light of this act in a relatable and playful way. 

When asked about the campaign, the chief creative officer at David said, “If you can’t fight a consumer behavior that’s so connected to your brand motto (A Taste Worth More), you just embrace it to create awareness and relatability.” 

The campaign also includes static and radio ads, which you can read more on here.

The ad scores in the top 10% of all UK ads in potential to drive immediate sales (Sales Impact: 91) and in the top third in potential to drive brand equity and long-term sales (Brand Impact: 69). 

It was particularly effective among men, who scored it in the top 10% of all UK ads on both sales and brand impact (Sales Impact: 97, Brand Impact: 92). It also outperformed among an older audience (45+ years old) on short term impact.

With a choice not to showcase the actual product and instead highlight a consumer behavior in an implicit yet very clear manner, the ad is seen as highly unique and distinctive compared to the UK norm (Ad distinctiveness: 4.0 vs 3.6 norm). 

Among men, it’s extremely attention grabbing (Claimed attention: 3.9 vs 3.6 norm), sets the brand significantly apart from others (Brand distinctiveness: 3.7 vs 3.4 norm) and is seen as particularly unique to Stella Artois (Uniqueness of brand impressions: 4.0 vs 3.7 norm). Over 40% of men said it could have only been an ad for Stella while only 30% of women said the same.

The ad was enjoyed significantly more than the average UK ad (Enjoyment: 3.8 vs 3.6 norm) also strongly outperformed in eliciting an emotional reaction from the audience (Overall emotion: 51 vs 41 norm). Love (24% vs 18% norm) and laughter (10% vs 6% norm) were felt particularly strongly overall compared to the UK norm, with the love reaction peaking in moments highlighting the brand and laughter towards the end when the message about the missing chalices is finally revealed.

Music choice can have such a massive impact on ads: Adding to the narrative, helping highlight important moments, eliciting emotions beyond the visuals, etc. In this case the song choice truly added to the overall appeal with 23% of respondents specifically calling out the music as an element they liked from the ad.

People also enjoyed how relatable the ad felt (Relevance: 3.5 vs 3.3 norm), with some even admitting the fact that they once stole a chalice themselves. The humor and lighthearted nature of the ad was highly commended alongside the fact that it was beautifully shot. 

Here are a few comments that illustrate what people liked about the ad :

• "It reminds me of all the frustration of being a bar manager and losing all the nice branded glassware. So true everybody nicks these glasses. And they turn up everywhere. Loved the music, sad and melancholy; great ad and very funny."

• "It was different from the normal larger advertising and actually very true everyone knows someone with Stella Artois glass in their home so enjoyed that plus music really helped."

• "Love the different approach they took with a true point of view that people do love the Stella chalices and love to nick them where they take pride of place at home love the comedy take on it."

• "I liked that it was a bit different and didn't hit you over the head with the same old "here's people drinking beer and having fun" message. And the camera work is really good."

• "It was a funny ad and quite relatable, I have actually got a Stella glass at home which I did in fact take from a pub so felt very personal, so thought of many people doing it, and Stella being aware is a good marketing approach, making light of it."

While some people understood the ad at a very superficial level, only taking away the fact that Stella Artois glasses are commonly stolen from bars, a third of viewers managed to connect the dots and pick up it most importantly conveys overall product quality. One consumer recalled the main message as trying to say that,“Their beer is so good people keep stealing the cups from pubs; unacceptable yet understandable.”

Highlighting the love for the brand and general premiumness and iconicity, the scored significantly above average on ability to generate a purchase uplift for Stella Artois (24% vs 15% norm). Before watching the ad, only 15% of viewers would have chosen the brand the next time they are buying beer. After the ad, this went up to 39% of viewers.

What a creative way to showcase superiority and quality in a subtle way without even having to display the product itself! 

What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

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