Lockdown meant all pubs and bars had to shut their doors. No customers. No income. They were confronted with an existential challenge. There was going to be an inevitable shortfall between the lean months and the end of lockdown. Whenever that may come.

How could we help ease their cash flow through this time, in a way that earned their respect and differentiated ourselves from other brewers?​

We created a gift card programme. The Save Pub Life campaign championed people to support their local pub by purchasing a gift card to spend there in the future, but giving the pub the much-needed cash NOW. To incentivise donation, ABInBev doubled whatever they put in, helping the pubs even more. ​This initiative wasn’t just for ABInBev customers. We offered it to all pubs, whether they sold our beers or not.

Main news outlets took up the story; Sky news, The Daily Mail, Metro. And as pubs reached out we created a huge content toolkit that they could adapt to use in social media to further their cause.​ The creative campaign was adaptable so each pub could tailor it for their establishment. They then published the assets for their followers to see.

It's not enough to set this sort of thing up and then walk away. We listened and learned every day for months, creating new types of messages for pubs to try with their audiences and videos from successful pub-owners to inspire others.​

Over 1000 pubs participated. Through organic posts alone, no media support, we helped those pubs get over 20,000 donations, totalling £1.2 million.

Versions of the idea spread across 21 countries: including USA, Canada, Belgium, Columbia, Italy, France, Canary Islands, helping over 24 thousand pubs to stay afloat, by raising over $11.5 million.