Huge loss for Droga5 as CUB marches VB, Crown and Cascade into Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne
CUB has consolidated its partnership with CB Agency of the Year Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, transferring brands VB, Crown Lager and Cascade from Droga5 Australia, effective immediately.
CB hears the news came as a huge shock to Droga5, having been informed of the decision without warning at 9.30am this morning, with the press release already written.
“We will always do what’s best for our brands,” said CUB marketing director Andy Gibson, “Clemenger BBDO Melbourne is an outstanding agency that has continued to deliver world class work for us over many years. In my view, they are not only the best in Australia, they are one of the best in the world.“
The decision follows a detailed review of the business’ creative and strategic communications requirements. The choice was made to solidify one, long-term strategic partnership to drive greater insight and benefit to the business, with the review considering creative ability and strength of work over the long term.
These beers join Carlton Draught, Carlton Dry, Pure Blonde, Strongbow and Bulmers already managed by the Melbourne-based agency. Clemenger has produced numerous award-winning campaigns for CUB, most recently “Carlton Draught SlowMo” which took Gold at Cannes in 2011.
“This move recognises the value we see in Clemenger’s team and their connection to our people, brands and ultimately our consumers.“
Says David Nobay, creative chairman, Droga5 Australia: “Four years ago, we built our business out of a garage with three partners and a labrador, to what it is today, thanks greatly to our thinking and work for VB, so clearly this decision is a painful one for us. That said, we’re grown-ups and have great respect for CUB as an organisation, and continue to have great love for VB as a brand. So, I genuinely wish them the best.”
Gibson added: “Droga5 has produced great work for CUB, particularly for Australia’s favourite beer VB. Their efforts have been greatly received by beer drinkers and on behalf of CUB I would like to thank them for their work.“
42 Comments
theey’r olways, come baeck. Hic.
About time.
I didn’t like the VB ads made by Droga5.
Let that be noted.
Quelle surprise. Good one Clems.
WOW!!
That’s a genuinely tough break for Droga5, who produced some brave work that was ultimately too clever-by-half for VB, a brand that is sadly losing its relevance by the day. Perhaps people just like the idea of liking VB more than they actually like VB.
As an Australian and a beer-drinker I hope we see a return to some big, simple common-sense stuff that makes people feel proud of carrying a slab of it on their shoulder, instead of trying to convince people think it’ll taste better if you freeze the fuck out of it.
“makes people feel proud of carrying a slab of it on their shoulder”
I applaud you.
I remember when Droga5 first won the VB account.
Cartoon characters of Shane Warne were in every bottle shop and they had a sponsorship of the “Bring Back The Biff” NRL player guy.
The reward for effort proposition had been dropped and sales were in massive decline.
When they won the other two, Crown Lager was in an even worse state. They talk about it as being the best liquid they can make but they also paired it up with the worst comms and maybe a golf sponsorship here or there and it found itself relegated to weddings and if they were lucky, some blokes 50th birthday.
Cascade is perhaps the biggest shame. The product is even named after the water yet they let that slide and we all know what happened with Boags – they grabbed the ball and ran.
So before anyone starts throwing rocks, I think it’s worth noting that Droga5 got given the three biggest basket cases in Fosters history. Obviously I’m excluding Fosters itself, they did a pretty good job of killing that brand too.
The marketing department needs an overhaul. Good luck to Clems on these as well. They are not easy brands to breathe life back into.
“The choice was made to solidify one, long-term strategic partnership to drive greater insight and benefit to the business, with the review considering creative ability and strength of work over the long term.”
translated….
“The South Africans want to cut costs”
It’s a no brainer the VB account would be be taken from Droga sooner or later, I feel for them. The CUB marketing team should take some of the blame. At least it gives Clems a head start, they will know what not to do given the past 4 years of direction. You can bet a hard earned thirst direction will be back. The question is, will anything save the brand as the beer drinking landscape in OZ has changed forever.
Ouch. Sorry for the folks at D5. No doubt a lot of long hours and heartfelt efforts have gone into trying to get people to love VB again. No easy task.
Chin up fellas. You have enough great people to bring in something else.
maybe they/re looking for genuinely campaignable ideads
Hope they also cleared out the marketing department that approved the work.
The VB brand was never going to be successful with that campaign no matter how many awards it won.
Changing a brands DNA is a high risk strategy.
I love a beer off the tap and I’ll always ask for it when in a pub. The only time I drink a fancy beer is at a wedding or some other special occasion that forces it upon me. My beer of choice was VB for a good 10 years, but it gradually seemed to become more and more like a pig in lipstick. I moved to NEW, but not because I liked their ads more. Probably because the brand didn’t try and rename my drinking occasion, or the dick-heads I love listening to as we talk shit and ‘celebrate’ having a session.
Of course I wish them good luck to them at Clems. But I hope that just as they’ve changed agencies, they also address where they believe the beer sits in the international bar fridge.
De Ja Vu
Isn’t that what they had with Patts for over 40 years – one agency who was their long term strategic partner!!
Tough break D5, I genuinely hope you’re people are all ok but seriously a client who sees the value of working with one agency and not fragmenting the business all over town is great
Clems has done great work for CUB over the last 4 years so in a shoot out they should win.
Big Multi brand clients take note !!
Nothing Qantas won’t fix?
Beside the fact that VB is a crap product, it has become irrelevant. VB was only popular at a time when there wasn’t a decent choice – when people didn’t know any better. European beer has demolished VB – and some great Aussie premium brands to be fair.
Nothing will save VB. Not even Clems Melbourne.
RIP VB
Interesting to see what Clems will do, especially with Crown. And will they return to “A Hard Earned Thirst”?
The marketing department that approved the killing of the reward for hard work strategy is not the same one that Droga5 worked with.
That strategy was dead before Droga5 even got the business.
Go Jim & Cuz
For me, the biggest surprise is they kept it so long with so much work that seemed to be created by people who apparently hated VB drinkers – or at the very least, thought of them as dumb bogans to be laughed at and continually represented them that way.
The thing I don’t understand is why Lyon Nathan didn’t prompt;y adopt the “hard earned thirst” strategy for one of their key brands when VB deserted it.
Boags have done very nicely with pure Tasmanian water after Cascade left it behind in one of the industry’s greatest pieces of insanity, so the “hard earned thirst” direction was there for the taking for any smart beer marketers.
But of course, we haven’t had any of those in the country for over a decade now.
No agency is paid enough to put up with the constant stress and amount of hours worked on a piece of business like this over the past 4 years.
Constant change of marketing people, a fading brand in trouble, everyone being an expert, change of ownership of the company. It was a shame George Patt’s lost the business after all that time, it’s a real shame D5 have lost it after all their hard work. Good luck to Clem’s, they are a good agency – but it does seem it’s all about the money now CUB is owned by the South Africans!!
Told you so. It’s usually a mistake to abandon a brand property that’s been built up over decades unless you’ve got a better one. They didn’t.
And while we were led to expect great things from the Australian start-up of D5, I’ve yet to see anything brilliant emerge from them. Clems Melb are head and shoulders the best agency in the country, with clearly the most talented creative department, not to mention what looks like great relationships with many of their clients. That’s vital for the approval of great work.
Mind you, there still is the question of the historic about-face by CUB on ‘The Carlton Draught Tingle’ which had the potential to be well-loved by beer drinkers and a huge business success. Why did that happen, and will the same apparent conservatism prevent or destroy more great work on CUB, particularly VB?
VB is the Lion Red of Australian beers. A dying beer brand that doesn’t mean anything to the younger market and has been replaced by other better beers. CUB will soon realise this and cut their marketing altogether.
VB is a shit product. It tastes dirty and cheap. Can’t understand why anyone would drink it. Maybe a bogan redneck who’s holding onto the good ‘ol days when they were even thicker. (There’s your strategy boys – the south africans will understand).
Geez you people can whinge. Who gives a toss if CUB is owned by the South Africans. Lion Nathan is owned by the Japanese. I think it’s what we call being part of a global market.
Piss that really does taste like, you guessed it – piss.
VB, you need to listen me.
Take a screen grab of this comment and email it to your marketing team. Please tell me they’ve embraced emails.
Change the bloody product!!!!! Do anything, lighten it, darken it, make it crispier, stick an animal on the label (must have horns), stick a bloody lime in it………..do something.
Change or die – that simple
Is there anyone out there that is going to stop Clems Melb? Fuck. We need batman.
I love VB. It is the best beer around. Better than all those wanky beers. The ads were too clever. Get back to basic fellas.
A hard earned thirst needs a big cold beer and the best cold beer is Vic. Bring it back! Make it contemporary,make it relevant and as Mo and Jo used to say,make me feel like a beer at the end of it! How stupid were Fosters to hold up a mirror to beer drinking demographics. Too worried about winning awards than selling beer.
When you want a beer really bad, we’ve got a really bad beer.
What’s wrong Trisha? You don’t like South Africans?
Most of the comments here are by people who never drank VB in the first place – advertising wankers who think anyone who drinks VB is a bogan.
Also, it seems none of you know anything about the history of the brand or of beer in Australia. For example, a number of you seem to think that VB was eternally Australia’s biggest selling beer and that it has only now been usurped by better imported beers. That’s factually incorrect.
At around the time when imported beers and boutique beers first started making inroads into the Australian beer market, VB was an almost exclusively Victorian beer. It was still called Victoria Bitter at the time.
Massive marketing blunders by XXXX, Tooheys and Swan – and smart marketing by what was then CUB – saw VB storm the interstate bastions at exactly the same time as foreign beers were growing in popularity.
It’s probably true that no brand could stay so dominant forever, but it’s a simple fact that VB’s decline owes an awful lot to insane strategic thinking and advertising that has no understanding of or respect for the VB market.
As for the taste, the target audience have always liked it – just ask Russell Crowe – so mucking about with the product (as some idiot suggested) would be the final nail in the coffin.
Me? I’ve never liked VB. But I’m an advertising wanker too.
THE TARGET AUDIENCE IS DYING OUT YOU FOOL _ JUST LIKE THE BEER
No, the audience is not dying out.
They’ve been ignored, insulted, laughed at, ridiculed and treated like idiots. Hardly a clever way of keeping them loyal to your brand.
And you miss the whole point of VB’s original marketing strategy anyway. The blue collar credentials gave the beer credibility; that gave the rest of the population permission to drink the stuff.
That audience you think is dying was never the main purchaser of the product.
When you start denigrating the people who gave your product credibility, you’re on a slippery slope. But then, after you burn that bridge and start saying the beer is for everyone – from blue collar blokes to Molly Meldrum – then you’re done for.
Any product that says it’s for everyone ends up being for no one.
I think saying it is for everyone in this case was valid.
It is a leveller, the kind of beer anyone could pick up and instantly be down to earth, one of the boys.
Trouble with the reward strategy that they needed to overcome is that no one aspire to hard work. No aspires to blue collar. No one aspires to a decent days work.
VB rose to favour on the back of Fosters dying because it stood for throwing cash around and sailing yachts – when the market went ‘Pete Tong’, everyone wanted an honest beer – and they found it in VB.
No one wants an honest beer anymore. Fosters rode Carlton to great heights of the demise of VB. (Those sales had to come from somewhere.) and so the death of VB will come one day.
They have other options in the portfolio, like Melbourne Bitter, which carries little baggage.
Once you stand for something, it is very hard to stand for something else.
Unfortunately, they stood for it a little too long and didn’t modernise in time.
Time will tell if I am right, give me 10 years.
Woah, I’ve stumbled across a Planners portal.
Melbourne BItter is fine where it is – not being advertised.
I had VB once, but the penicillin seems to have cleared it up just fine.
Anybody with a spare garage?
Well done Clems. You have a gift for speaking to the people when it comes to beer.
My $2 planning kit says to me that the values it used to stand for still hold true as its unequivocally Australian. We respect people who work hard with little reward more than we respect those whom expect big rewards because of their name.
Would love to see this resurrected as a brand as it’s part of our hard working, take shit from nobody including the queen ethos.
Responding to “Erasmus though…” at 1.49.
I think you’ve missed the point a little. Yes, as you say, you want VB to be a beer that anyone can pick and be one of the boys.
But you don’t do that by having having spots where VB is a beer which everyone picks up and becomes one of the boys.
That goes back to what the original blue collar positioning was about. By having commercials with ordinary blokes drinking the stuff, it gave the beer the kind of cred that made the rest of us feel good about drinking it – we borrowed that ‘real bloke’ personality, even if we were public servants or accountants.
That’s why I say you never position a brand as being for “everyone”, because that would make us feel personally generic if we chose it. And no one wants to be generic.
It’s true when you say the rise of Carlton Draught had much to do with the fall in VB saies – Carlton Draught taps replaced VB taps throughout NSW, which did an automatic swap of a lump of sales figures.
Bt that doesn’t excuse the appalling work that has been done for VB.
PS: Any creative who doesn’t think about these things, who thinks it’s just work for planners, should exit the industry now. If you don’t think about these things, how can you ever effectively interrogate the briefs you receive? How can you even understand the briefs you receive? In my experience, 99% of planners are a waste of time. The only decent ones I’ve come across have had a creative background because they do think about these things all the time. It’s only when you sit down to write an ad that you can clearly see how good or bad a strategy is.