Celebrating your birthday during lockdown due to COVID-19, that sucks. That means no party, no friend and no toast in real life to properly celebrate your birthday with the ones you love… That’s why Belgium’s biggest beer brand, Jupiler, came to the rescue.

Jupiler didn’t have a specific target, but they knew that they were in a crunch. The Covid crisis had slashed their budgets (including media), but at the same time there was rarely a more important time to take action to regain some of the lost beer sales and show a positive brand image during the pandemic. Not in the least to support their partners: the bars, closed during lockdown.

In short, a briefing with zero media budget and the bare minimum in terms of production budget, yet with high expectations when it came to taking responsibilities and giving Belgians hope in these unprecedented times.

Your birthday is not lockdown compatible? Just postpone it!

Celebrating your birthday during lockdown due to COVID-19, that sucks. That means no party, no friend and no toast in real life to properly celebrate your birthday with the ones you love…

That’s why Belgium’s biggest beer brand, Jupiler, came to the rescue: inviting all Belgians celebrating their birthday during the lockdown to postpone it until after it!

On a dedicated website, Belgians born in March and April could choose a new birthday date and received, as a gift, free beers to drink in their favourite bar, once the lockdown is over! And they support the bar owners by doing so, as Jupiler pays them back all offered beers.

Simple.

An easy way to give some hope to all the unfortunate people who were celebrating their birthday during lockdown. And a little glimpse at our post-COVID social life.

As the biggest beer brand in a nation famous for its lagers, Jupiler targets broad: LDA (legal drinking age - 16) and over. Jupiler also built its brand around responsibly sharing with friends. The joy of beer as social occasion.

Therefore, we needed something universal & appealing to such a broad demographic. And should entice it to share with friends - and drive them to the bars.

So, what’s more universal than a birthday and the disappointment of not having anyone around during that time?

We deliberately built a platform that was extremely low threshold, self-explanatory, easy-to-use and low in overall production cost.

We then made sure that the reward was sufficiently high – 10 free pints of Jupiler – so we could place our bet on the earned media aspect of social media: enticing people to share, forward, comment, tag someone who had their birthday in March or April.

On March 14, Belgium entered into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 31, Jupiler launched “Postpone your Birthday” via an organic post on its Facebook page. Offering to all Belgians celebrating their birthday during lockdown the opportunity to postpone it until after it.

On www.jupilerbirthday.be, Belgians born in March and April could enter their real birthday date and prove it with their ID card (by uploading a picture on our platform). Then, they chose a new birthday date, after the lockdown.

As a gift, participants received 10 free pints of Jupiler – via a redeemable coupon in their confirmation email – to drink in their favourite bar, once the lockdown is over! So they can go celebrate with all their friends, making up for all the lost hugs and cheers. And they support the bar owners by doing so, as Jupiler pays them back all offered beers.

In less than 24 hours, the activation hit an organic reach like Jupiler had never seen before in Belgium:

- 413K people reached (previous best post = 273k in a week)

- 6.3K comments (previous best post = 1.4k)

In total, Jupiler convinced 95.312 Belgians to postpone their birthday. That’s 13% of Belgian adults born in March & April. Among which more than 40.000 in less than 48 hours. Main national media talked about the activation, generating €458.597 of earned media. All this with zero media budget.

With 11.317 likes, shares and comments, and 99% of positive sentiment, it’s clear that Belgians were waiting for a positive brand communication in these unprecedented times.

Oh, and we almost forgot... AB Inbev liked the idea so much that they decided to run it as well in other markets: in South Africa (for Castle), Colombia (for Poker) and Canada (for Palm Bay).

Cheers!