The dinner table has long been considered a place where people can come together and connect with each other after a long day, or week, or month, or even years. In a new campaign launching this week, Stella Artois is positioning itself as a staple of the dinner table and the connections that happen around it.
“More and more, Americans are eating dinner alone, missing out on opportunities to connect with each other,” said Marcela Garcia, vice president of marketing at Stella Artois. “We find that having a conversation over a meal – great food, good friends, and of course, Stella Artois – is the best way to connect and create lasting memories.”
The new integrated campaign is anchored by a video commercial that depicts a woman dining alone in her apartment when the table drops through the floor, uniting her with her neighbor, who is also dining alone. The sequence repeats through multiple floors of the building – bringing people together – and ending in a massive celebration for all the residents of the building.
“[The campaign] is an evolution of last year’s “Make Time for the Life Artois” campaign, and we’re re-interpreting what it means in a modern world,” Garcia said. “This year, we really wanted to go to the brand’s roots of bringing people together over meals and welcome a younger, more modern consumer in a way that is more authentic, real and vibrant.”
The commercial is part of the brand’s most integrated campaign in years, Garcia said. The effort will include television, social, out-of-home, radio, digital, influencers and more. She also promised the brand will be part of “the hottest moment[s]” in culture over the summer.
“Stella Artois is one of the most established premium lagers in the world, but there’s still so much opportunity for this brand to insert itself throughout culture – across fashion, sports and of course, food,” Garcia said. “I want Stella to be at the center of culture and connection, a brand our consumers trust to speak authentically and show up vibrantly in the moments that matter.”
The brand will also launch promotions with Yelp, Instacart and Uber Eats that foster connections. Instacart, for instance, will feature a Stella Artois “Let’s do dinner” hub on its brand page, encouraging consumers to add a six-pack to their grocery carts. Uber Eats will feature an ad on its home page enticing consumers to stock up on the beer after ordering their meal (and offering gift cards for the delivery service as well), and Yelp will use its rating and discovery platform to push people to make reservations at local restaurants and have a round of Stella Artois.
“These platforms over-index with our consumers, and we noticed a growing trend of consumers dining alone,” Garcia said. “Our new platform is driving togetherness during casual food occasions which is allowing us to own that place in dinner.”
