Although Zagrebačka Pivovara’s (Zagreb Brewery) Ožujsko beer was already the category leader in Croatia, the beer market had been steadily declining in recent years. Facing increasing competition, Ožujsko needed to strengthen its brand leadership among consumers and help reverse the decline of the core beer segment in the country.

Ožujsko worked with BBDO Zagreb, the lead creative agency, and UM Zagreb, the lead media agency, to develop a campaign that would reinforce consumers’ preference for the beer. The team launched “Dijalekti,” an effort that paid homage to Croatia’s rich history of local dialects and suggested that with Ožujsko beer, everyone is easier to understand.

The “Dijalekti” campaign focused special attention on customizing messages according to local languages, encouraging local pride among the target audience. At the same time, the regionally-targeted effort featured dialects from different parts of Croatia that may be unfamiliar to locals, demonstrating the overall linguistic wealth of the country. “Dijalekti” included three TV spots highlighting the local dialects of Bednja, Čabar, and Vis, and out-of-home placements focusing on ten other regions. The campaign also included in-store activations designed to engage directly with consumers, a special “Croatian Dictionary” on Facebook, and customized holiday cans that celebrated twelve different Croatian dialects.  

Ultimately, the effort successfully reached consumers and exceeded all objectives. “Dijalekti” was awarded Gold in the Drinks category and the Grand Effie at the 2016 Effie Awards Croatia gala in April. 

We asked Mario Lovrić, Managing Director of UM Zagreb, to share additional insight into the media strategy behind “Dijalekti.” Read on to learn how his team helped bring the Effie-winning effort to life.

Tell us a bit about your Grand Effie-winning effort, “Dijalekti.” How did UM Zagreb arrive at the media strategy for this campaign?

ML: Our role was to support excellent creative work, especially TV ads that were developed by creative agency, BBDO Zagreb. According to the communication strategy, it was important to include audio featured in the campaign because of the various dialects from Croatian regions that were used, TV was by far the most efficient media because it combines audio and video, so it was chosen as the leading media in this campaign. Our job was to optimize the usage of all channels available, especially TV.

How did you bring the idea to life?

ML: Since it was important to reach a very wide target audience, we used an appropriate mix of the biggest TV stations with national coverage to create maximum impact, The agency proposed the right level of GRP pressure according to seasonality, competitive activities and reach efficiency.

What challenges did your team face when bringing this idea to life? How did you overcome those challenges?

ML: There were a lot of creative ideas that had never been used before, but the development of those ideas was either too expensive or even impossible. To overcome those problems, we brought the focus back to the efficiency of the media used within the mix. The creative work was creative enough even without taking a risk with the media channels.

What is the biggest learning you’ve taken away from this effort?

ML: If the creative work is creative enough to convey the message it is supposed to communicate, there is probably no need to risk too much with pushing revolutionary media channels at any cost. Creativity of the material enhances ad recall and helps all media channels used to stand out, even within a cluttered market.

Is there anything else we should know about the “Dijalekti” campaign?

ML: The most surprising result of the campaign is that it started a conversation about the cultural heritage of various dialects still used in Croatia – a relatively small country, but one that is still very proud of the wealth of its language heritage.

This was not first time during almost 25 years of continuous collaboration with this client that a campaign has received a lot of attention from the press and the general public, so we are very proud that this happened again.

To learn more about the Effie Awards Croatia program, visit www.effie.hr.