The challenge

How could we persuade students to drink more responsibly?

Our approach

We targeted communities of students in social groups, rather than as individuals. The campaign had to be fun, creative and engaging to make any impact, and couldn’t be critical or condemning about drinking or it would be instantly dismissed.

We created the ‘One Too Many’ campaign and targeted 19 universities. Our strategy was to create play and fun, whilst stimulating serious conversation about the perils of drinking one too many. We recruited ambassadors on all campuses and gave them a tool kit of collateral to work with.

For the second stage we created the ‘Be Yourself’ campaign and extended to hundreds of campuses across 14 countries.

The campaign was designed to help students self-empower, to resist peer pressure and allow them to be themselves

It tapped into both a growing health trend as well as student culture, which influenced the imagery, animations and language. The campaign worked across all platforms of social media, advertising, digital, advertorial, print, events and word of mouth. We also created two websites. Many elements were designed so local student communities could adapt them, like posters, mimes, social media posts, competitions, games and animations

Impact

• Highly praised by SUs and the NUS for its innovative approach and effective messaging.

• Post-campaign interviews revealed it did make people more aware of the dangers of drinking too much. More significant was that, due to the stimulated discussion, the influence of their peer groups – who condemned drunkenness – had an effect upon the students behaviour.

• It was Diageo’s most successful drink awareness campaign, exceeding reach and reaction of several of their own drink’s brands.