DDB Behind Cannes Lions 'Ethel's Brew' Antics

While covering Cannes Lions last week, a woman named Ethel kept popping up in our Twitter stream and we sort of tossed it off as some agency attempting to leverage the event for publicity. We exchanged a few tweets with the dear lady who let us know her husband had just died and she had decided to launch a beer brand, Ethel's Brew, in honor of her late husband's love for the suds.

As it turns out, an agency was behind the stunt and that agency was DDB. Led by DDB CCO Amir Kassaei, the agency created the entire campaign including Ethel's persona, her Twitter account, video and, yes, the actual beer that was served at various events during Cannes Lions. Brassierie Duyck in Jenlain, France brewed 15,000 bottles of the stuff.

Explaining the campaign, Kassaei said, "This year in Cannes, instead of just throwing a huge expensive party, we wanted to create something that would be far-reaching, reflective of DDB's creative nature, and showcase the use of social creativity to produce tangible results for a brand in a short two-week time frame. Anyone can throw an over-the-top party, but pulling off a brand and product launch on a shoestring budget is a more exciting challenge for our teams."

To support the launch of Ethel's Brew, DDB's mostly digital marketing campaign was released over 14 days starting June 12. The effort included disseminating sharable video and image content via seeding and social media while simultaneously engaging fans and encouraging follows through Ethel's persona on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and more.

Seven videos accompanied the campaign along with nine wild posting placed in and around Cannes last week.

The campaign gather respectable traction last week with Ethel's videos and images appearing on sites such as Funny or Die and Blend.nl, in addition to niche beer blogs such as ratebeer.com and brewbound.com.