The second tranche of advertising is out supporting the Stella Artois recycle campaign. True to its promise, the ads inform about a programme to plant hedgerows across the UK.

Andreas Hilger, Marketing Director for InBev UK says: “The new Stella Artois promotion is a fun play on words that delivers a serious investment towards helping replenish Britain’s depleted hedgerows, which are critical to the existence of many plants and animals throughout the UK.

“As the UK’s number one lager we are helping consumers to take small steps with us. The Hedge Fund promotion enables Stella Artois to help consumers take those small steps and together reduce the rate of climate change – one kilometre of hedgerow will absorb up to one tonne of CO2 a year,” explains Hilger.

We have talked before about the difficulty for a brand like Stella, which has focused on developing an idiosyncratic image that does not preclude green efforts but will need to work hard to bring these values inside the brand in a meaningful way over time (see previous post).

The results are reported in Marketing Week:

• Stella’s “Buzz” has increased from 0 the day the outdoor campaign broke (10 August) to 3 at the end of last week (21 August)
• The eco-friendly positioning also had a positive effect on its “Corporate” rating, which climbed four points in the week following the campaign’s launch.
• The company claims that the launch of a French Riviera-themed campaign for its 4% variant is also a factor in Stella’s “strong brand health”.

Initial campaign results look strong and the strategy looks like it will bear fruit. We have written a recent post about focusing on making positive social contributions during a recession called ‘During a downturn be good, not cheap’ that supports this kind of strategy. While much work remains, it looks as though Stella is off to a strong start.

We assume that the French Riviera style will continue to lead campaigns and the green credentials will find the right channels to live in i.e. the packs and other POS promotions as the brand shifts back to the main message and continues to build its green credentials over time.