Budweiser: A safer journey home with Walksafe+

According to a recent YouGov survey for the BBC, 66% of women said they felt unsafe walking home at night. As the world’s largest brewer, it wanted to take a proactive stance to do all it can in bringing further attention to this issue – one facet it actively wanted to address was to ensure women and other vulnerable groups feel safe walking home after a night out.

Action

To achieve this, we facilitated a collaboration between Budweiser Brewing Group and WalkSafe+, an app that provides tools to users to enable a safer route home – all based on police data.   

The project was two-fold - firstly, the brewer invested in app optimisations and new features and secondly, utilised its strong platform and route into bars, pubs, and clubs to raise awareness. With its platform and vision for a more inclusive and enjoyable social environment for everyone, we advised Budweiser Brewing Group to launch a meaningful awareness campaign which supported both its customers and consumers by empowering people to go out to hospitality venues and plan a safer journey home.  

To inform the campaign, we commissioned a survey which found that as many as 81% of women who visit pubs, clubs and bars consider their safety when getting home, and 1 in 5 women are altering their behaviour by walking more and taking fewer taxis in response to the cost-of-living crisis. These stark findings cemented the need for urgent action, and provided valuable insights that we used to shape the strategic thinking around the launch of this activation.  

Hanover developed an integrated campaign, spanning a radio day, targeted media outreach, social media (organic and paid), OOH advertising (TFL, National Rail, The O2 and in pubs) as well as a panel discussion and drinks reception with Andrea Thompson (Editor-in-Chief at Marie Claire) moderating the event. Collateral in the form of posters and coasters were also designed and created for hospitality venues to promote the collaboration and to encourage app downloads, given that our data showed that women were more likely to visit a night-time venue if it had measures to improve women’s safety, as well as anti-harassment and discrimination policies.  

Impact

Through a wave of UK press and digital activity, we achieved 37 high-value pieces of coverage across key consumer and B2B outlets as well as national broadcast channels, totalling a reach of 241,894,448. Corporate social media drove a further 19,247 social media impressions and 1,537 engagements. OOH advertising played a key role in our awareness campaign, with the creative featuring QR codes that directed users to the App store, resulting in 13,720 downloads and 19,516 sign ups to the WalkSafe+ database in just one month.  

The panel discussion was described as ‘insightful and powerful’ by Andrea Thompson, Editor-in-Chief at Marie Claire, and was attended by women’s safety advocates and influencers, as well as representatives from the London Mayor’s Office. The event placed Budweiser Brewing Group in front of key industry stakeholders and provided an authentic platform for the pertinent issues of personal safety to be discussed, positioning the brewer at the forefront of wanting to do something tangible to help and make a difference.   

To drive even further awareness and underpin Budweiser Brewing Group’s commitment to an inclusive environment in hospitality, Hanover also designed and developed glass decals, posters and beer matts for On-Trade partners, which received excellent feedback and engagement – these materials were ordered by X venues to help ensure consumers can feel more confident about getting home safely at night by downloading the app to map a safer journey home.