BECK’S | BECK'S FREQUENCY | 2020
Making Rivals' Beer Taste Bitter to Prove a Point / BECK'S "BECK'S FREQUENCY"
Brazil is pilsner paradise. BECK'S makes the bitterest beer around, but it's behind competitors in both distribution and budget. So what did they do? They got people to drink their rivals' beer.
The problem
Light lager rules in Brazil, and BECK'S is a latecomer known for its strong bitterness. It can't match competitors in distribution or ad spend. The only weapon it had left was sound. Research from Oxford and Harvard had already shown that frequency can change how we perceive taste.
The insight
If BECK'S can't get on more shelves, why not just use the competitors' beer instead? Play people a low frequency, and whatever beer they're drinking starts to taste more bitter. They turned the distribution gap into an idea built around the ear.
The idea
They brought in ten popular DJs in Brazil to remix hit songs at 73Hz (a nod to the brand's founding year, 1873) and 1043Hz. On becksfrequency.com, people put on headphones and tasted competitors' beers while the frequency switched every ten seconds. When the lower frequency played, the very same beer tasted more bitter. Even the film crew reportedly tried it half-doubting and were amazed by the result.
What happened
The campaign reached 25MM people, and sales tripled compared to the previous year. Awareness in the premium segment saw the biggest jump, taking share away from market leader Heineken. It won Gold and Silver in the Radio & Audio category at Cannes Lions.
Afterthought
Instead of beating the competition, they used it. A weakness—limited distribution—became a weapon, thanks to a trick played on the ears. I'd love to see more reversals like this one.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2020
Featured in
- The Egg Didn't Crack — 60 Years of Proof in ActionShowing, not telling. Why is this the one trick that never gets old?
