The Life Artois is about savoring time together with the ones you love the most. Unfortunately, in summer 2020, gathering with loved ones was not a possibility. Which begged us to question: How do we live The Life Artois when we are all apart? Caught in this tricky situation, we briefed our creatives with the task of figuring out a way to help consumers experience an escape “together” in a time when it was impossible to do so. Giving cooped-up consumers a way to enjoy a dreamy summer experience without ever leaving their homes.

Stella created the audio series “Daydreaming in the Life Artois - Tales of a Summer Worth Savoring” to help consumers indulge in a much-needed mental escape in 2020. The series featured six audio stories, written by six celebrated authors and narrated by Andy Cohen. Always with the brand playing a central role in the narrative.

Summer is traditionally a time to kick back, relax, and get away physically and mentally from the responsibilities of daily life. But in summer 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic severely restricted people’s ability to be outdoors, let alone enjoy summer activities with loved ones. They needed different modes of escape.

After months of being stuck inside, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we all needed to be momentarily transported. Daydreaming uses our imagination to step outside of ourselves and our surroundings. And in summer 2020, our daydreams became especially valuable sources of enjoyment. Stella helped people tap into their daydreams in order to keep The Life Artois—those savored summer moments with the people who matter most—within reach.

Stella created the audio series “Daydreaming in the Life Artois - Tales of a Summer Worth Savoring” to help consumers indulge in a mental escape. The series featured six audio stories, written by six celebrated authors and narrated by Andy Cohen. Always with the brand playing a central role in the narrative. The stories aired live on YouTube, where consumers could tune in to listen at 5pm on Friday evening, as a way to ease into the weekend. After the first story, Andy Cohen hosted a happy hour with Glen David Gold himself on Instagram Live. Viewers could tune in and ask all the questions they had after listening to the story.

There were 3.5M impressions and an 80% increase in e-commerce sales for July. With over 242M digital impressions, the audio series reached 100% of its audience, who were attracted by the presence of Andy Cohen and eager to engage with Stella’s original content in a form they couldn’t get enough of.

People engaged enthusiastically with the stories. Ads for the audio series drove click-throughs significantly above the AB benchmark on YouTube (+78%), the video’s host platform, and performed 18% more efficiently than the benchmark on Facebook. Also, on YouTube, audio ads drove a completion rate of 79%, 33% higher than the 30s TrueView VCR benchmark.