A Perfect Fit: Stella Artois Serves a Best in Class Collab
The Gentlemen x Stella Artois
The Auction
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An age of media fragmentation can sometimes be frustrating for brands but offers huge opportunities too. Streaming hits, for instance, build loyal and highly addressable fanbases. Just as brands can obtain major long-term benefits from collaborating with the right creator, so a partnership with the right show can produce seriously effective advertising.
Our Ad Of The Week this week, “The Gentlemen’s Serve”, showcases one such partnership. Netflix’s stylish crime thriller The Gentlemen, created by Brit filmmaking maestro Guy Ritchie, is back this month for its second season on the streamer. It’s already been renewed for a third, proving that its fans are a dedicated bunch. And for marketers, that audience is highly sought-after.
It’s a good fit for a beer brand, in other words. And Stella Artois, in their partnership with Netflix and The Gentlemen, have spared no expense in creating a slice of aristocratic gangster drama that could have stepped straight out of an episode.
Anti-hero, The Duke of Halstead, has his eyes set on a prime specimen at a livestock auction, but another high-roller bidder might walk away with the prize. So he sends over a glass of Stella Artois to his rival, whose server cuts the foam off the top in a way that leaves no doubt as to his menacing intent. Intimidation successful, the Duke wins his auction.
Oh, and the unfortunate rival bidder? None other than Sir David Beckham.
For fans of the show, the ad is a real treat, capturing the atmosphere and drama of The Gentlemen and entertaining them with a top-level celebrity cameo too. If you’re not watching The Gentlemen, the ad works not just as a commercial for Stella Artois, but as an introduction to the show’s sophisticated and dangerous world. But for Stella Artois, it’s that existing audience who are the real prize, and the ad is content created firmly with them in mind.
It’s a partnership that excites and resonates with those fans. When we tested “The Gentlemen’s Serve” on Test Your Ad Pro with a UK audience of two separate panels of show watchers, both gave the ad our maximum 5.9-Star Rating with exceptional ratings for short-term Spike and Brand Fluency too.
What makes it work so well? The answer is fit. There are many Netflix titles a brand could collaborate with, but none of them have the combination of sophistication, edge and broad appeal that makes Stella Artois a natural fit with The Gentlemen.
Building a brand via showmanship is also about building a world around that brand, so choosing a partnership means finding a show whose world feels consistent with yours. When you do that, as Stella Artois and The Gentlemen have, you can create something immensely effective.
"The Gentlemen has a fan base that loves the world Guy Ritchie built – the style, the stakes, the swagger – and Stella Artois plays a meaningful role within it because it is a brand built on precision and ritual that fits in effortlessly. This campaign is a true piece of entertainment, and it fuels the appetite of fans well beyond the screen, allowing them to experience the show in their everyday lives. It's the kind of collaboration that makes both the show and the brand richer."
Magno Herran VP of Global Brand & Marketing Partnerships, Netflix
