Speight's 150th Birthday
Lion partnered with Cartology to transform a category slump into a high-converting, 150th-anniversary Retail Media celebration across Woolworths New Zealand.
Total Sales Growth
market share growth
New / Reactivated Customers
Background and Objective
Faced with a declining mainstream beer category in New Zealand, Lion set out to transform a challenging market slump into a high-converting growth opportunity. Lion leveraged the historic 150th anniversary of Speight’s Gold Medal Ale—New Zealand's oldest surviving beer brand—to create an engaging, country-wide retail celebration.
By connecting with everyday Kiwis around a major cultural milestone, the campaign aimed to break routine shopper habits, drive brand conversion, encourage new product trial, and reverse sales decline.
The Insight
Full-strength mainstream beer was experiencing category-wide declines, requiring a strategy beyond price promotions to reignite demand.
Mainstream beer drinkers represented the primary growth segment needed to boost volume and drive trial across the portfolio while the 150th anniversary of Speight’s offered a powerful heritage story capable of converting passive category fatigue into an engaging, celebratory event.
The Solution
Replacing the traditional briefing model, Lion, Woolworths, and Cartology engaged in cross-functional collaboration to co-create a unified commercial and media strategy designed to solve category decline through customer trial.
Unified Strategic Partnership
Joint alignment connected retail media and commercial strategy while unlocking an exclusive first-to-market promotional space, creating unmissable physical prominence to intercept customer routines.
Connected Omnichannel Activation
'Golden Cans' creative bridged digital discovery with physical store media engagement, serving as final conversion triggers at the moment of choice.
Precision Digital Targeting
Activated first-party search intent across 66 beer terms to capture high-intent shoppers, low-carb buyers, and lapsed brand loyalists right as they were building their digital baskets.
The Results
Named 2026 Campaign of the Year and Best Omnichannel Campaign (<$100k), Lion’s Speight’s 150th Birthday activation transformed Retail Media into a high-conversion growth engine:
- Historic Category Share: Speight’s expanded its total market share +5% YoY, fueled by a +145% YoY sales leap for Speight's Summit Ultra.
- Massive Revenue Velocity: Participating SKUs generated a +123% YoY total sales growth.
- Customer Acquisition Engine: Recruited 6,400+ new or reactivated customers, making up 46% of total campaign buyers.
- Proven Commercial Return: Delivered a strong 3:1 Return on Investment (ROI).
