Weekend Not Wasted: how Diageo promoted the benefits of responsible drinking to Gen Z

Diageo’s responsible drinking initiative – DrinkIQ – aims to change behaviour around binge drinking and encourage the responsible consumption of alcohol.

Our brief was to create a campaign that would reach 60% LDA-24 audiences and positively change their behaviour – making responsible drinking aspirational.

The brief asked for an idea that:

● was good enough for people to share it once they find it;

● had inherent media value;

● would spark conversation about the importance of drinking responsibly;

● would make Diageo stand out as a leader.

The strategy

Previous Diageo campaigns have included a binge drinking VR experience video series, an animated video campaign about informed drink decisions targeted towards students and campaigns featuring celebrity talent warning against drinking too much.

These campaigns are generally situated within the drinking occasion (bar/club) and focus on the negatives and what can go wrong when you drink too much.

While binge drinking is still a problem, overall drinking levels are down with this portion of Gen Z, and there’s a strong aspirational mindset to make the most of their time through a productive lifestyle.

With this insight, we saw an opportunity to shift focus away from the tropes of responsible drinking comms - the negatives of drinking too much - to the positives of what you can do when you drink responsibly, all delivered through the lens of entertainment.

The campaign

We created ‘Weekend Not Wasted’, a branded entertainment series that celebrates all of the things you can accomplish when you don’t overdo it the night before. The series featured three presenters taking on a series of challenges together.

By initiating a partnership with MTV, the series was able to reach the target audience group whilst extracting the most value from a media budget: a deeper integration onto MTV’s platform that included co-branding, talent access, paid slots, editorial and broadcast.

The campaign was delivered across MTV’s channels in the UK, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, and Germany.

Using supporting content across social, we further communicated the aspirational value of responsible drinking, and a robust media plan drove people to watch the series on YouTube, Facebook, and MTV’s website.

The results

Launching at the start of June, the campaign has outperformed reach targets while observed engagement has shown positive uptake of the message.

In total the content reached 25.5 million people across the five markets with 2300% uplift in awareness of DrinkIQ. The average YouTube View Through Rate is at 30% and episodes posted on Facebook achieved over 1.8 million post engagements.

Crucially, the campaign also changed behaviour with a measured 107% increase in intention to reduce drinking in the future.

The campaign also sparked the imagination of the audience across digital channels, with viewers tagging their friends in comments, suggesting and planning their own weekends not wasted.

This project was highly commended at The Drum Marketing Awards 2020. To fid out more about The Drum Awards, including which awards are currently open for entries, please click here.