Kona Brewing Co.'s 'Bruddahs' are back to poke fun at screen obsessions

Dive Brief:

Kona Brewing Co. and agency Duncan Channon rolled out the latest installment in the brand's "Dear Mainland" campaign with a trio of new video spots highlighting the perspective of two easygoing Hawaiian "Bruddahs," according to a Kona press release.
The 15-second ads, which are running on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, poke fun at a growing attachment to smartphones and playfully remind viewers to enjoy life sans screens. Upcoming "Dear Kona" videos will feature the duo's responses to fictional letters asking advice about how to deal with situations like a boss that labels every email "urgent."
Kona and Duncan Channon are also set to run a weekly social media sweepstakes, hyper-local videos targeting five California counties via a partnership with CBS and a set of summer concerts with the A.V. Club in both Los Angeles and the beer's hometown of Kona, Hawaii.

Dive Insight:

Kona’s latest fits into its overall breezy brand message and smartly leverages a number of channels for broader reach just in time for the summer season — often a huge sales period for beer brands. The effort is part of Kona's ongoing “Dear Mainland” campaign, which launched in 2014 with three 30-second video ads. After the campaign’s first year, Kona saw a 37% sales lift in markets where the videos aired and an additional 15% growth the following year, per the press release.

Not surprisingly, the Bruddahs are back for summer 2017 with the same concept: "One life, right? Don’t blow it."

This time, the campaign is expanding beyond traditional TV spots and print to integrate social and digital channels. The brand understands that many people spend the majority of their day in front of one screen or another, and though it may seem contradictory to preach reducing screen time via web videos, Kona is cleverly meeting its audience where they already are.

The campaign, which runs through Sept. 3, also deploys a hyper-local strategy. In partnering with CBS, Kona will produce TV spots that offer the Bruddahs' laidback take on the local values of Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco. The videos will only air on Thursdays — or what the Bruddahs call "Little Fridays."