The brand is looking to build on its experiential activity, which includes a presence at festivals, to widen its reach beyond its primary audience of 25- to 45-year-old men.
Strongbow has appointed Lean Mean Fighting Machine as its first retained digital agency after a pitch organised by creativebrief. The agency beat Airlock, RGA and Weapon 7 to land the account.
The first activity will go live ahead of the Strongbow-supported Rockness Music Festival, in mid-June. Lean Mean Fighting Machine will be responsible for the development of the brand's main website, as well as digital campaigns.
Lucy Henderson, brand manager for Strongbow at Heineken UK, said: ‘As social media becomes increasingly important, we are confident we can develop activity that will support our brand objectives and allow us to have ongoing relevant dialogue with our target consumers.'
According to Tom Bazeley, managing partner at Lean Mean Fighting Machine, the agency will use Facebook to promote Strongbow. ‘Associations with festivals work brilliantly, but at the moment they only work when you're there,' he added. ‘We're going to use digital to amplify what Strongbow does at festivals to a wider audience.'
Strongbow repositioned its brand last year with a TV campaign, created by St Luke's, aimed at working-class men. The aim of the push is to generate ‘a more emotional' connection with consumers.Strongbow's website currently hosts a ‘grafters hall of fame'.
RPM handles the brands experiential marketing surrounding music festivals. Strongbow plans to become involved with a greater number of festivals this year.
According to Nielsen, in the year to October 2009, sales of Strongbow grew by 21.9% to £224.8m, while those of closest rival Magners declined by 7.8% to £65.1m.
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