James Ready turns cap mishap into marketing campaign

If marketers have learned anything in recent months—from BP in the Gulf, to Apple’s iPhone antennaegate—it’s when a brand makes a mistake, it’s important to step up and communicate with consumers clearly and truthfully. And that is why some lucky James Ready drinker might just get an old hockey card in the mail. Or a […]

If marketers have learned anything in recent months—from BP in the Gulf, to Apple’s iPhone antennaegate—it’s when a brand makes a mistake, it’s important to step up and communicate with consumers clearly and truthfully. And that is why some lucky James Ready drinker might just get an old hockey card in the mail. Or a sock.

While not quite on par with oil spill disasters or tech giant screw-ups, the folks at James Ready beer were faced with a mishap of their own last month. The brand has traditionally printed words of wisdom on the back of its beer bottle caps and labels, in an effort to endear itself to fans with a certain sense of humour and advice for saving beer money. However, in late June there was a mix up at the bottling plant and many caps went out blank. Soon, the folks at James Ready and its agency Leo Burnett Toronto would be faced with angry mobs of drinkers denied their beer-flavoured bon mots. (And by “angry mob” of course we mean inquisitive Facebook fans.)

To quell the steady stream of “Hey, what’s up with my blank cap?” e-mails, the agency decided to use the rapport it has built between the brand and its drinkers with campaigns like sharing its billboards and campus casino nights to turn blank caps into the Blank Cap Recall. The brand issued an apology video on its Facebook page and asked drinkers to send in their blank caps or pictures of their blank caps, in exchange for a James Ready mystery gift.

“The catch is, we don’t say what we’re sending out. It could be an old hockey card or a pack of googly eyes, but they’ll be very James Ready-like items, and they’ll come with a formal apology note,” said Leo Burnett Toronto chief creative officer Judy John. “It’s really about continuing that dialogue with our drinkers. It’s really important to keep that going, so they know we are listening. When they ask, ‘What’s up with this?’ We don’t just hide and say, ‘Nothing to see here. This was a mistake and we wanted to come out and admit it and make it right.'”

Blank caps have just started making their way to the brand and the agency is getting ready to send out the first round of apology gifts. The total number of blank caps that made it to market is 2,423,407. So, as John put it with a laugh, “This could go on for a while.”

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