Newcastle Brown Ale seizes the digital imperative

Stephen Whiteside

This event report explains how Newcastle Brown Ale, the beer brand, has moved its advertising spend almost exclusively to digital, with great success.

How Newcastle Brown Ale brewed up a digital success story

Stephen WhitesideWarc

For all the hyperbole surrounding digital marketing, few brands are brave enough to almost solely rely on this medium to engage consumers.

With its attention-grabbing "No Bollocks" positioning – first launched in 2012 – and messaging that lampoons almost every conceivable cliché of modern advertising, Newcastle Brown Ale has long stood out from the crowd. But according to Quinn Kilbury, brand director for the Heineken-owned imported beer, its decision to focus with near-exclusivity on new media was not entirely voluntary.

"It's out of necessity, to...

WARC subscribers can sign in to keep reading

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands