Our target thought that America was cool and Mexico was not. We had to change their opinion at scale by celebrating what makes the country unique.

Nothing is more Mexican than “Dia de Muertos”, the “Day of the Dead” festival.

It’s the time of year when, according to according to tradition, the gates of heaven open and people are reunited with their loved ones for 24 hours.

But despite believing in ghosts and spirits (more than 40% of young people say they believe), our target thought the festival was old fashioned – with sober and boring celebrations.

They preferred Halloween, which happens at the same time in November. That’s full of spooky fun and excitement.

To get young Mexicans into the spirit of the dead – and celebrate Cerveza Victoria’s rich Mexican traditions – we would bring the country’s most famous ghosts back to life.

Our launch video brought La Llorona back to life, showing her walking along one of Mexico’s most famous streets. As she walked down the road, a car drove straight through her.

We then unveiled the truth behind the video and showed how Cerveza Victoria made this happen through behind-the-scenes footage.

Our haunted house experience – The Hotel of Legends Victoria – opened eight days later in Mexico City and gave our intrigued audience their first chance to experience the legend of La Llorona.

Once the hotel was open, we made the Hotel feel like THE experience of the Dia de Muertos season by getting people to see the experience for themselves.

This included SnapChat filters, branded Facebook profile pictures, 360-degree video tours, a reality show with influencers who spent the night at the Hotel and even a Dia de Muertos closing party.

It became an experience no one wanted to miss.

Cerveza Victoria has become part of Mexican folklore for turning an entire generation of young people onto a nationally-sacred festival.

And each stage of strategy had an incredible effect on our target audience.

La Llorona’s magical reappearance was viewed 18 million times.

4.4 million people interacted with our brand.

Cerveza Victoria became the trending topic on Dia de Muertos.

And sales among our target audience sky rocketed. We increased preference of Victoria (month on month, October to November) by 2.9% and a 5% growth in people naming Cerveza Victoria as the last beer they purchased.

We have changed the way young people view the most Mexican of celebrations, and smashed all our brand targets along the way.