Balter Brewing Company launches Big Slab to boost Queensland tourism with Deloitte Digital
Queensland’s Balter Brewing Company has launched The Big Slab, a new tourist attraction to help rejuvenate the state’s tourist economy via Deloitte Digital.
Says Stirling Howland, brand director, Balter Brewing Company: “The Big Slab follows a proud Australian tradition of putting massive things by the side of the road.
“We saw a completely selfless opportunity to give back to the state where we brew this delicious XPA, whose tropical and floral aromatics set off a fruity palate that will punch your taste buds in the pleasure zone, and is available on tap in over 1600 locations, which you can find easily via our Beer Locatoron at Balter.com.au.”
The Big Slab is positioned on the M1 at Yatala and aims to attract families; specifically, fathers and children that probably should have moved out of home, from around the country.
Says Matt Lawson, chief creative officer, Deloitte Digital: “A lot of people are saying it’s just a picture of a slab on a billboard, and we say to those people come down and see for yourself, just please don’t look at it from the side.”
The Big Slab was recently unveiled at a launch event by co-founding member and surf legend Mick Fanning.
A social campaign that gives Big Slab visitors the chance to win drinkable miniature Big Slabs is running through Facebook and Instagram and has already given away over 150 XPA slabs to enthusiastic visitors.
Balter have also created limited release Big Slab merchandise including shirts, tea towels and stubby coolers. All profits are going to hospitality Tipjar which aims to raise 100k to support Covid affected food and beverage workers.
Merchandise can be pre-ordered here: https://shop.balter.com.au/collections/the-big-slab.
Client: Balter Brewing Company
Brand Director & Co founder: Stirling Howland
Graphic Design: Lach Goldsworthy
Marketing Coordinator: Ben Trueman
Creative Consultancy: Deloitte Digital
Creative Brand & Advertising Partner: Adrian Mills
Chief Creative Officer & Partner: Matt Lawson
Executive Creative Director: Charles Baylis
Head of Motion: Rob Weir
Production Company: Collective Digital
Director: Mike Calvino
Producer: Jamie Brooks
DOP: Jamie Brooks
Editor: Collective Digital
68 Comments
Belter.
Good one. Agreed.
Can totally see the pitch…
Agency: “Let’s build a giant slab that is reminiscent of the big pineapple”
Client: “Sounds Expensive? How about we just do a billboard?”
If it was actually a slab and not just a normal billboard
Or is that the joke?
Dunno
“A lot of people are saying it’s just a picture of a slab on a billboard, and we say to those people come down and see for yourself, just please don’t look at it from the side.”
That’s the joke. And that’s the best part of this idea. It’s just a billboard and not just a billboard.
It is just a picture of slab?
Only 5 million people in all of Queensland 1.853 million km²
Thats the same population of just the City on Sydney 12,368 km²
Good luck losers.
Queensland is a few weeks from bankrupt and slabs aren’t going to solve it with zero tourism from overseas or interstate.
Only a new premiere will.
That opening drone shot definitely isn’t Queensland…
It’s a billboard.
It’s a billboard asking people to buy your product.
It’s an ad.
Nothing to me suggests that that couldn’t be Australia.
What are you seeing?
This is a dumb beer ad.
I really like it.
They really milked every last cent out of that media buy.
Am I the only one that read the actual article?
“A lot of people are saying it’s just a picture of a slab on a billboard, and we say to those people come down and see for yourself, just please don’t look at it from the side.”
I think they know it’s a billboard and are having some fun.
Great ad.
I mean, you call Queenslanders losers but are practically begging to get in lol
Talk to any non-business owner (or anyone outside of the Gold Coast) and they’re pretty content with not having irresponsible southerners bringing the virus here.
Maybe get out of your marketing bubble and ask some regular people. Pretty sure QLD’s healthcare workers are pretty happy about the situation.
Tourism is also not as badly hit across regional Queensland. I know because I grew up in Western QLD, and friends who remain there as tourism operators have said they’ve seen more Brisbanites than ever before (and are not as financially hit as you would imagine). That being said, that’s just anecdotal to me and my circle.
I doubt you visit anywhere except the coasts though.
The solution is not a new premier, it’s simply to annex the Gold Coast onto NSW and they can have their tourist trap and stop crying to the media 24/7.
Oh yeah, and this campaign is literally just a billboard. Joke or not, the context isn’t there for someone just driving past it.
It’s just a magnified packaging design, not even a billboard. It wouldn’t even make it as a magazine ad.
So you wouldn’t run this outdoor execution that relies on the premise of being a roadside tourist attraction as a magazine ad? Just checking.
Erm the context is QLD. We have big things by the side of the road. And even without context it’s a massive billboard of the clients product. Win win right?
I like the way Deloitte Digital got a digital agency to do the digital.
Absolutely right. Because a magazine ad wouldn’t be a bloody big sign by the side of the road in QLD would it? Good Creative Directing champ.
Lord give me patience. It’s only a ‘tourist attraction’ because the PR release says it is. It’s only a billboard because it wasn’t built as a giant slab. You do realise the reproduction artwork isn’t life size, don’t you? So as a layout it could just as easily be a mediocre magazine ad, a DPS a billboard or a whatever. I’ll wager that it won’t be noticed by traffic on a highway at 100 kms anyhow, and not one person will say ‘Fuck me! Look at that huge slab of beer.’
We’re doing just fine champ.
We’d rather be safe with some latency in the economy than encouraging a second wave brought on from southerners.
There’s actually very little digital in this. Mostly outdoor and PR really. Collective Digital did shoot the footage though.
Cheers. Mills
That merch is all time.
But it doesn’t even look like a slab, so how are you meant to get the ‘joke’ that it’s just a billboard of a slab.
(or is it not a billboard of a slab and I’m missing something? I first thought the slab must be behind that billboard).
kind of weird idea tbqh
>it’s a big slab haha
>no it’s not, it’s just a billboard
>haha yeah that’s the joke are you dumb or something hahahahahaha lol
it could have instead been
>it’s a big slab haha
>yeah you’re right it is a big slab haha that’s funny
>yeah
see, that’s gold
It’s truly terrible. It doesn’t look like a slab so the inference to it being one is totally last. As for it being a joke. Last most Aussie humour in ads, it falls flat.
Well because we’re being honest… I feel the sting from your comment got lost, or last, or something. Anyway, what were you saying again? I’m last, I mean lost.
“hahah our state is bigger than yours”
literally 4 year old thinking
Please don’t overthink me. I was simply a billboard that was transformed into a parody tourist attraction. I gave away some beer. Made some people laugh. Got my own merch range. Heck, I even raised some money for the good folks at the TipJar fund.
Now you can argue about the Premier and the spelling of her name, or whether you have a sense of humour, or if I’m a ‘real’ Big Slab or not… but the one thing you can’t argue about is the damn cool tea towel that was designed after me. Which poses the question, do any of YOU have YOUR own tea towel?…
Big love, from the Big Slab
It just makes me sad
It doesn’t really look like a slab to me at all. I feel like it relies on someone already being familiar with the Balter design. But having looked at social it appears as though the punters love it, so that’s the main thing. Plus the merch is cool – especially the tea towel.
Love the simplicity and boldness to use the slab as the billboard.
The write up is about ‘boosting’ Queensland tourism. I’d say the number of people that are able to travel in Queensland would be pretty closely related to that so not an out of place comment. If Queensland is doing just fine then why advertise?
But hey, I’m happy not having a bunch of poorly educated inbreds loose in the rest of Australia too, so by all means, please keep those borders shut Queensland. Keep mining and destroying the reef. You go girl.
This is bloody good.
Complete with scam celebratory endorsement and media buy right?
Perhaps are just naturally sad?
You need to watch the cast study video to get the idea. Which won’t get PR expect for this spot.
It’s a shame because I think the idea is really good, just poorly executed 🙁
I’m just amazed ABAC allows them to have a smile in their logo and advertising.
Other brands they crack down on sooooo hard over stuff like that.
Maybe this PR coverage of the Big Slab on Channel 9 news will help you get the idea?
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=682663245778775
I’m sure the creative team wanted this to be a proper 3d installation. A lot of agencies would’ve pulled the plug when that option was taken of the plate but Deloitte seem to be the agency trying to do anything creative these days so kudos to them for sticking by the idea and trying to put something fun out there.
Must be a slow news day in Qld. Yeah a couple of typos so I’m sorry about the blunt sting, but honestly don’t be such a twat.
if that was the joke, that newsreader didn’t get the joke. no one will get the joke. unless you read the pr release.
Yes, “Deloitte seem to be the agency trying to do anything creative these days”.
They’d be better off just sticking to digital.
It’s simple beer level laugh. What’s with the bitterness?
Miniature big slabs. Genius.
Absolutely woeful. Seriously, try harder but don’t be a try hard.
The good ECD’s don’t sit around trolling on the blog you fraud.
I drive past it all the time, makes no sense. Like this comments section.
Everyone this isn’t a Thinkerbell idea you know!
Pa love this
Ah, sorry, missed that.
Still would have been better if it WAS an actual giant slab
“Merchandise can be pre-ordered”
Sooooo you haven’t actually made the merch yet? Just the billboard. And the hype film.
Good luck with that.
Said an uniformed idiot. Qld have nailed it. Can’t believe a shit ad is a platform for some idiots to sprout bullshit.
Newsflash: The PR release is also the ‘ad’. Something that’s kind of been happening for well, forever.
It’s using a billboard on a shoestring budget to get far more reach than it would on its own.
That’s how you know about Balter now, right?
I’m sure they would have loved to have done a real ‘big slab’ (or a ton of other ideas), but last time I checked budgets overall are negligible for everything. I doubt Balter is flusher than most. This does pretty well under those circumstances in my opinion.
It’s just a little bit of fun FFS.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m pretty keen for things to be a bit less serious and a lot more fun right now.
Nice job.
Genuine lol.
So they managed to get billboard of massive picture of their beer as a featured item on the news? Fair play.
So we want punters to believe this regular billboard is actually a big flat slab which is actually a tourist attraction that people should stop on the freeway to eyeball and which maybe sometime in the future is gonna to sell its own range of merch of the billboard pretending to be a flat slab even though it just looks like a billboard.
One too many Balter’s belted back in the brainstorm I reckon. This is Baltshit.
First things first, Baltshit is clearly a very clever play on words, so well done there. Actually, it’s not, I’m using something called sarcasm, which is a form of something called humour. And humour is what this billboard has employed in suggesting it’s a ‘big slab’ or tourist attraction. Also check the IG, people did stop. Lots of them. Because they understood it was a joke too. Still Baltshit I’ll have to write that one down, oh wait, you did. Twice.
QLD. Where the level of intelligence is matched in the advertising.
And grammar?
I saw this on their insta and everyone seemed to get the joke. And have a laugh. What is wrong this industry? Even jokes makes us angry. Let’s all sit back, have a laugh, and make fun stuff again.
Seems to be a lot of Bitter Melbourne drinkers here.
Have a Balter and learn to smile.
You might like it.
I don’t see many bitter comments, but quite a few defensive ones. You should take this for what it is.
It’s is all just fair feedback for work that upon closer inspection doesn’t live up to its hype. The kind of feedback a seasoned senior creative would give a green but hungry junior team.
Most decent agencies know better and you could learn from them. Deloitte should maybe be cut some slack as a digital agency that’s at least trying. Although you may have more success promoting your digital work would which I hope is alot stronger.
Thanks Old CD Guy for missing the point more than anyone has ever missed anything. I really needed that laugh today.
It’s a f*cking billboard…
Jeez Louise, lighten up. It’s a bit of fun. Why does everyone have to get so butt-hurt over things and sling shit at them? If you don’t like something go and make more of the rational, logical kind of advertising you like. It seems the imaginative, inventive spirit in our business is being replaced with narcissistic, overthought trolling. Which to me suggests either real creatives aren’t commenting on this blog, or real creatives have exited our industry and the rest have turned into whiny suits.
Nice work. Simple. Funny.
It would help if their packaging didn’t already look like a minimalist billboard. Confusing as f*ck.
Maybe if they at the very least took a photo of an actual slab with visible texture instead of just running the Illustrator file the gag might be more obvious.