Poretti Makes Beer Ads Cool Again

Of all the qualities a great ad can have, cool is one of the trickiest to define, let alone achieve. Lots of ads try – especially in a category like beer – but few succeed. Carlsberg’s premium Poretti lager brand nails it though, with this deliciously cool ad from agency Pablo in which a suave gentleman takes a black and white boating trip around a lake with some lively foxes and a chilled glass of the Italian lager.

We know the ad’s doing something right because of the reactions Test Your Ad Pro viewers gave us. “It’s funny, different, shows a decent chilled time” says one. “Highly amusing; novel; unique” says another. That’ll be music to the brand’s ears, as the whole aim of this campaign is to shake up what Poretti sees as an increasingly bland and samey beer category.

From the evidence of the Test Your Ad database, they aren’t wrong. Beer and cider is a popular, highly social category but its average Star Rating sits at 3.0-Stars. “Welcome to the Lake” – the name for Poretti’s new creative platform – opens strongly above that average, scoring 4.6-Stars, which predicts strong long-term brand growth given the right level of investment.

So the numbers tell us Poretti and Pablo are doing something right here. But what exactly?

One of the lessons to learn if you want to make a cool ad is that less is more. Conjuring up a world which captures the essence of a brand is something many campaigns shoot for. Some ads overload the audience with quirky or surreal elements, but Poretti succeeds by keeping it simple. A man, a beer, a cult classic soundtrack, and some foxes. It’s just enough weirdness to fascinate the audience, who mentioned the foxes as the element that stood out most in the ad.

The ad also doesn’t try and undercut its aura of cool with knowing asides or fourth-wall breaking, something so many modern ads do. It can be a clever technique, but it can also break the spell the craft of the ad has worked hard to weave. “Welcome to the Lake” is a very funny ad, but the humour – one of the foxes accompanying the soundtrack with a quick blast of harmonica – feels like it comes from within the ad’s world. It means “Welcome to the Lake” has a very strong sense of place, which we know is one of the most effective elements an ad can employ.

What Poretti are doing here is creating a world and inviting the audience in, but asking them to take it on its own terms. A minority will depart baffled or even annoyed. But as the Test Your Ad results show, the majority of viewers are surprised and pleased. Integrity, wit, and the strength of mind to do something different in your category – what could be cooler than that?