In the last year in Colombia, drunk-driving was responsible for 887 deaths. Moreover, according to reports, 7 out of every 10 victims of drunk-driving related accidents were friends of the driver driving in an intoxicated state. With this in mind, the brand that supports friendships communicated in a novel way the classic “Don’t drink and drive” message with the main objective of reducing the number of road traffic accidents during the end-of-year festivities, a time when Colombians increase their consumption of alcohol.

The brand transformed the moment of opening a beer bottle into a symbolic demonstration of a car crash, a reminder of what can happen when a drunk person drives. This was done by changing the traditional beer bottle caps for special editions, black caps with car grills that bent up, that is “crashed” when they were opened with a bottle opener (drinking beers from bottles is the most popular form in Colombia).

In Colombia, when a person decides to drink a beer, he/she needs a bottle opener to uncap it. Realizing this, the brand took advantage of this means of contact and decided to place the classic “Don’t drink and drive message” in a different way. The caps on more than 400 million special-edition bottles became a channel for this message. When people went to open a beer, they would see a drawing of the front of a car on the cap. On opening, the cap would bend in the middle, thus representing a car crashing. This message was accompanied on the back with redeemable codes to take a taxi ride with the EasyTaxi application.

In advance, in different print and digital media, the brand put hundreds of black points containing messages about the consequences of drinking and driving. This generated curiosity in both the media and general public, without people knowing that a brand was behind it. The launch coincided with the end-of-year festivities, a time when there is a high-alcohol consumption. More than 400 million of the special-edition bottle caps were produced, that’s over 10 times the population of Colombia. In addition, the brand contacted influencers and opinion leaders, giving them personalized kits with the new beer bottle caps and explaining the idea behind the codes, that they could be used to get a free taxi ride home. In this way the consumer could play a part in taking care of his/her friends. Finally, the message was reinforced via different media such as OOH and social media.

People saw how the brand took the risk to use its product to send an impactful message of awareness and responsible consumption. The result was that more than 50,000 people arrived home safely using the taxi codes on the back of the beer bottle caps with a 5% reduction in road accidents compared to the same period the previous year. The campaign also generated 2.6 million dollars in earned media. We used the beer bottle caps as a channel for an ingenious message, spread in a different way. We gave the classic “Don’t drink and drive” message to Colombians, but this time with results.