Challenge was to confirm Carlsberg positioning as a reward for people showing courage, give new meaning to whole tired concept of 'friendship' in beer advertising and do both by building social currency. In other words through conversations and earned media. In other words through PR. Talk-value is crucial in this campaign.

To achieve such a PR Talk-strategy we didn’t flatly claim that Carlsberg is a reward for true mates, we demonstrated it and by doing so dramatically associating the brand not just to friends, but to friends who would practically kill for each other. Not with actors pretending to be friends, but with real friends in action. So the message and the Talk-value is in the outcome of this live experience, not in the experience itself. It’s in the relief that we witness true friendship.

In concrete: in the middle of the night we let a group of guys call their best friends to get them out of hoc of a poker night gone wrong. After explaining what’s at stake, each guy asks their best friend at the end of the line to bring 300 euro to the sketchy gangster dungeon where they’re being held captive. The questions 'what would you do to safe a friend in need?' and 'Would my friends do that for me?' lies in the heart of all conversations. Globally. The talk-value of the campaign was instant.

We didn’t flatly claim that Carlsberg is a reward for true mates standing up for a friend, we demonstred it and by doing so dramatically associating the brand not just to friends, but to friends who would practically kill for each other. Making it so much more than the average ‘social-friendship-beer’-ad. Witnessing such true friendship makes us question ourselves, and our own friends. It makes us wonder if any of our friends would do that for us.

The questions « what would you do to safe a friend in need ? » and « would my friends do that for me ? » lies in the heart of all conversations. The Carlsberg friendship test went around the world from the very start. The talk-value of the social video - made from the stunt - made the online and offline headliners instantly, gained over 4 million views and over 400.000 shares in its first week (still counting). After 2 weeks over 160 million people were reached and earned media was estimated over 4 million dollars (still counting)