AB InBev believed that the pre-meal apéro is often overlooked as an income stream. Pair apéros with Leffe Royale, and instantly you’ve got an exciting activation programme to delight customers and create sales.

We brought this idea to life with marketing materials, an after sales traning programme, serving props and merchandise for a tasty campaign.

An unusual coupling
Beer and fine dining? You wouldn’t think it, but this intriguing combination has an exciting story to tell. We needed to up the game in terms of ritual, storytelling and execution to drive a new consumption opportunity.

Cutting our teath on zythology
With advice taken from Michelin-starred chefs on flavour matching or zythology as it is known, we presented a compelling demonstration, pairing Leffe Royale with cured meat, hard cheeses, fish and seafood. This insight informed our creative solution and gave us an exciting reason to engage with high end restaurant owners across Europe.

The perfect ‘Aperitif Royale’ moment was born including a beautifully crafted sell-in programme personalised to each restaurant that participated.

Serving up results
75% loved the ‘food pairing’ concept. 35% of restaurants approached decided to adopt the new apéritif moment; this resulted in 14% of increased sales. Our Leffe Royale presentation box was so successful with restaurant owners that, we were delighted to discover, some even displayed them within their restaurants like an award.

Illustrator: Steven Noble