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Epilogues: 'The Campaign . . .' by Bill Steigerwald and Cristina Rouvalis, photos by Tony Tye, ran May 3 Sunday, December 20, 1998 Bill Steigerwald, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
So, did that I.C. Light advertising campaign last spring work? Did spending nearly $300,000 on hip, new, youthful TV ads do what it was supposed to do - sell more suds for Pittsburgh Brewing?
After six years of not advertising its products aggressively, the makers of Iron City, I.C. Light and Twist hired the Blattner/Brunner ad agency to create a stronger identity for I.C. Light, a brand with an 18 percent market share in its own back yard, placing it far behind No. 1 Coors Light's 45 percent share for light beer here.
As Sunday Magazine watched, Blattner/Brunner's creative team spent months putting together three 30-second TV spots, from concept and soundtrack to final film edit. The ads, which played off the never-ending war between the sexes in a gentle and humorous way, ran on TV last spring and early summer.
The ads didn't have all of Pittsburgh drinking I.C. Light for breakfast, but they did their job, said Michelle Neilan of the brewery's marketing department.
Sales for all of the brewery's brands in the third quarter, the latest figures available, rose 3 percent, she said. That sounds low, but Neilan said the ads did their job by preserving Pittsburgh's overall marketing share in this region.
Everyone liked the way the ads turned out, she said, which is why Blattner/Brunner's concept and the tag-line - "Make It Two" - will be used again this spring. But Neilan said she wasn't sure yet whether the campaign will use TV, radio, print, billboard or some other "grass-roots" medium as its primary medium.
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