'COVID-19 Era'... Outstanding On-Tact and Untact Marketing of OB Beer

Cass Ontact Music Festival, 'Cass Blue Playground Connect 2.0', Held on the 18th
Budweiser's 'BUD X DPR' Live Performance and Active Non-Face-to-Face Marketing Targeting MZ Generation

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] As the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has accelerated marketing activities in the food and beverage industry through non-face-to-face methods, OB Beer is leading the ontact and untact trends by implementing marketing strategies that combine new ideas.

According to OB Beer on the 17th, Cass, the No. 1 beer brand in Korea, will hold the ‘Cass Blue Playground (CBP),’ a music festival now in its 6th year, as the first ontact concert. It is scheduled to be held on the 18th from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. via Cass’s official YouTube and Facebook channels. A Cass official explained, “We planned the ontact performance to provide the best music and entertainment to consumers in their 20s and 30s while complying with social distancing.” He added, “Especially this year, we expanded the genres to include K-pop idols such as EXO’s Sehun and Chanyeol, Red Velvet, and Lee Hi, who were selected as Cass’s summer campaign models, in addition to the existing EDM artists.”

Last year, Cass also released an interactive digital film called ‘AORBI,’ where the ending changes depending on the viewer’s choice, on its official YouTube channel. Starring actor Choi Woo-shik, ‘AORBI’ surpassed 10 million cumulative views and was recognized for its innovation by being selected in the top 10 of Google Korea’s ‘YouTube Ads Leaderboard’ and winning the ‘Twitter Brand Award 2019’ Innovation Award at the end of last year. Leveraging this advanced digital marketing experience, OB Beer conducted various marketing campaigns in the first half of this year targeting consumers frustrated by the COVID-19 situation, emphasizing home cooking and entertainment with campaigns such as ‘Jipdwaeji Challenge - Guwolking’ and ‘Keep It Fresh,’ delivering fun and messages of encouragement to consumers.

In particular, in May, OB Beer achieved great success by fully utilizing the expertise of its brand model, Baek Jong-won, CEO of The Born Korea, to release an online beer class on YouTube, which recorded over 13 million cumulative views. The ‘Baek Jong-won’s Valuable Beer Class’ series was conducted in a free talk show format with Baek and comedians Yang Se-chan and Yang Se-hyung, providing rich information and entertainment about beer, receiving favorable reviews from netizens.

OB Beer’s Budweiser has been increasing its connection with the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z) by introducing various artists and music genres to consumers through the online music platform ‘Bud X Beats’ since 2019. In June, it held an ontact live performance ‘BUD X DPR’ with the trending hip-hop group DPR Crew, attracting attention from hip-hop fans.

Recently, Budweiser selected singer Henry as its model and launched the ‘#EnjoyItCheerfully’ campaign to support consumers feeling frustrated due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The video released on official social network service (SNS) channels shows Henry enjoying ‘staying at home’ cheerfully by DJing with frying pans and pots or lying on a chair while watching a skydiving background on TV. The video has received explosive responses from the MZ generation with comments such as “I thought it was real, as expected from Henry” and “I have to drink Bud every time it comes up.”

Yu Hee-moon, Vice President of Marketing at OB Beer, said, “OB Beer’s various brands have prepared untact marketing early to quickly respond to changing consumer needs and expand connections with the MZ generation, allowing us to carry out diverse marketing despite COVID-19.” He added, “We will continue to strengthen ontact and untact marketing methods for consumers in their 20s and 30s who may feel frustrated due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.