• Background & Context

Skol is a Brazilian light beer tailor made for Brazil's tropical heat and culture.

That said, it's important to highlight that precisely this easy taste and local brand equity led Skol to leadership for almost 30 years.

But, after a long time in a comfortable place, the situation started to get a bit bitter - and not just metaphorically speaking. Premium and Craft Beer market grew in the last years, making them more accessible (lower price with perception of cultural ascension).

Those brands started to conquer space in consumers' taste buds and hearts, offering labored bitter tastes and the status of global brands.

• Creative Challenge

There was no room for a light common beer like Skol anymore - and all the love became hate.

Consumers started to criticize it and call it "corn juice" and "watery beer".

With declining market results, the former apple of AB inBEV's eye needed to start reverting this scenario.

The target mindset had changed, and drinking Skol was not cool anymore. The growth of premium and craft beers was impacting the quality perception of the brand and the product to everyone.

After years of trying to reconquer consumers through popular communication and product innovations that weren't enough to change Brazilians' now consolidated harsh opinion about the brand.

• Solution

After a long journey of research with consumers, ex-lovers and haters, an unbranded product test showed the path to a new strategy solution:

Skol was #7th in preference amongst its competitors when labeled, but was the #1st when non-labeled.

Brazilians' palate may have evolved to bitter beers throughout the years, but not enough to exclude the lightness of Skol.

Researched consumers assumed: despite liking it, they believed it wasn't OK to drink Skol in front of their friends and on social occasions, because it supposedly highlighted their unfamiliarity with beers in a time when pretending to know about beer was trendy and cool.

The liquid was not the problem. The social acceptance was.

We needed to restore Skol's "social permission to be consumed" and prove that consumers may pretend they don't, but their hearts belong to Skol.

• Execution

If the unbranded test was the final proof, we made this our CREATIVE IDEA: a prank that could catch consumers pretending to hate us, but loving us instead.

But it wasn't credible to only create content - so, we created a "new brand".

Inspired by the "premium Norwegian design trends" that Brazilians now say they love, we created: KLØS (A cheeky anagram with the original name).

Inside the can, light, refreshing, crisp Skol beer.

So, we invited Skol Lovers, consumers and influencers to prank their fancy-skol-hater-friends. Using hidden cameras, we filmed them saying how much they hated Skol, trying KLØS and saying they liked it.

The event's host then tore off a special sleeve and revealed they were actually drinking Skol.

We selected the best reactions and created lots of TV and social content.