Last week, Cobra unveiled its new ad with Karmarama, unveiling a face of the brand for the first time with side business BraCo. The Drum catches up with Ali Pickering, brand director at Cobra, to learn more.
Multi-talented entrepreneur The Boss made his TV debut last week, as part of a new Cobra campaign which aims to show the smoothness of the beer and bring the brand to life. The first brand character created for Cobra, The Boss looks to “have some fun with the brand whilst still retaining some of the heritage for which Cobra is so famous,” Ali Pickering, brand director at Cobra, explained.“We were looking for a campaign that would make people sit up and take notice, and standout from other beer campaigns out there, and we feel The Boss allows us to do that.”
The ad sees The Boss run Cobra by day, before he switches things up by running BraCo at night. For all those who didn’t realise, BraCo is, of course an anagram of Cobra.“We thought it was the perfect name for The Boss’s second business,” Pickering revealed. “The play on the name, and the corresponding logo, are so distinctively Cobra that we knew it would be memorable but also ensure it tied back to the brand name itself.”
This campaign comes as a shake-up from what Cobra has done in the past, where the focus has mainly been on the heritage of the brand and its smooth taste. So why the change?“We now feel that it’s time to build on our success, and the awards that Cobra has won, and showcase Cobra as a premium beer that can be enjoyed on multiple occasions. Through the ad campaign and the supporting social strategy, which is all focused on the 'Live Smooth' strap line, we have brought the world of The Boss to life and are giving people the chance to be a part of our ‘Live Smooth’ philosophy.”Before its launch, the campaign was teased on social media, with ten second videos given names such as ‘Beers. Brassieres’ and ‘By Day. By Night’.
“The short teasers allowed us to build some excitement and anticipation for the brand ahead of the campaign launch. They all mentioned one of The Boss’s two businesses and were designed to create intrigue as to what was coming,” Pickering added.As part of this teasing, the Cobra Diversification Division was created on Facebook two months ahead of the ad launching.
