AB InBev
#SmartDrinkingBuddy Live Quiz
Pan-India live quiz
- Capabilities
- Brand Strategy / Audience & Culture / Integrated Marketing
01 — The Challenge
AB InBev wanted awareness for #SmartDrinkingBuddy, its responsible-drinking initiative tied to Global Be(er) Responsible Day, and a real conversation about drinking responsibly. It also wanted people to remember the campaign's mascot.
The brief came with a catch: don't make it sound boring. Customer engagement and interaction — not reach — was the North Star metric.
02 — The Insight
Responsibility messaging is easy to ignore when it arrives as instruction. Delivered inside something people already enjoy — a live, competitive quiz — the same message gets chosen rather than served, and the mascot becomes the host of the experience instead of a logo on it.
03 — The Strategic Move
Carry the message through a live, pan-India quiz rather than campaign advertising, and make the #SmartDrinkingBuddy mascot the host of the experience.
Run the campaign in two phases — a first contest that proved the format, then a New Year edition that scaled it with an offline event and a live quiz across eight cities on a custom microsite.
In the quiz, make attention to the brand the way to win: brand and smart-drinking questions worth 15 points instead of 10, so listening to the message helped you beat the field.
04 — The Idea
A two-phase participation campaign built around the #SmartDrinkingBuddy mascot.
Phase 1: a contest format that proved the audience would engage with a responsibility message voluntarily.
Phase 2 (New Year): a New Year-themed vox-pop series repeating the format that worked, an offline event with 100% of registrations driven through LBB, and a live quiz across eight cities on a custom microsite. Registrants picked one of three time slots, got the quiz link by email the day before and a text reminder 15 minutes before their slot. Each quiz was 10 questions at 10–15 seconds each. After selected questions, the mascot appeared with a smart-drinking tip on a 'knowledge card,' so the message arrived as a reward rather than a lecture. The mascot fronted 90% of social posts and stories plus the microsite's start and end screens, and each slot's winner got a hamper with an Xbox One S and JBL earphones.
05 — The impact
- 4.6M+
- Phase 1 impressions (30 days)
- 8.1M
- Phase 2 impressions (15 days)
- 1,731
- Quiz players across the day
- 181K+
- Unique quiz views (vs. 70–90K)
Phase 1: 4.6M+ impressions in 30 days, reaching 386,983 unique users on LBB; 5:01 average time on the contest page and 7.5–8.5 minutes on city content articles; 60% of event registrants turned up. Phase 2: 8.1M impressions in 15 days (more reach in half the time); 737K+ video views across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, 63% above target; 83% of registrants turned up in Bangalore; users spent an average of 3.5 minutes engaging. Live quiz, promised vs. achieved — Sign-ups: 1,500 promised / 2,000+ achieved (78% went on to play). Players: 1,000–1,500 promised / 1,731 achieved. Unique views: 70–90K promised / 181,374 achieved. Social reach: 400–500K promised / 697,677 achieved. Banner impressions: 300K+ promised / 700K+ achieved. Participation grew across the day: 430 players at 12PM, 622 at 3PM and 678 at 6PM.
06 — My Role
Account manager and client servicing across both phases, owning end-to-end execution — content writing, social media management, performance marketing, events marketing and influencer partnerships.
Product and operations manager on the live quiz, responsible for the build and day-of running of the format across all eight cities and three time slots.
Scripted the video content and worked with the videography team on final edits, and partnered with creative, tech, product and editorial teams to bring the campaign to life.
Did not conceptualize or pitch Phase 1, but did conceptualize and pitch the Phase 2 event and the live quiz.
07 — How it came to life
- Phase 1
- Contest that proved the engagement format; 4.6M+ impressions in 30 days and a 60% event turn-up rate.
- Phase 2 — Vox-pop
- A New Year-themed vox-pop series, repeating the format that worked in Phase 1.
- Phase 2 — Event
- Offline event with 100% of registrations driven through LBB; 83% of registrants turned up in Bangalore.
- Phase 2 — Live quiz
- Live quiz across 8 cities on a custom microsite: LBB-article registration, three time slots, email link the day before and a text reminder 15 minutes before each slot, 10 questions at 10–15 seconds each.
- Quiz mechanic
- Brand and smart-drinking questions worth 15 points instead of 10 — so paying attention to the message helped you win. After selected questions, the mascot appeared with a smart-drinking tip on a 'knowledge card.'
- Mascot integration
- The #SmartDrinkingBuddy mascot fronted 90% of the quiz's social posts and stories, plus the microsite's start and end screens.
- Gratification
- The winner of each slot received a hamper with an Xbox One S and JBL earphones.
08 — Why it mattered
Every KPI was beaten by designing for participation rather than reach — and the two-phase build turned a one-off contest into a repeatable format. The quiz mechanic that made brand attention worth more points is the strategist's tell: the message became the way to win, so the further a responsibility message travelled, the more people chose to play. The success also opened further work with AB InBev's CSR team and brands like Budweiser and Corona.
Published breakdown — Medium
How We Created A High-Engagement, High-Impact Millennial-Focussed Campaign For ABInBev ↗
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