Red Men are retread men in new pitch

By SIMON HENDERY

The red-blooded men of old are back, but do they still have what it takes?

After slapping the Chinnies off the air, Lion Nathan has resurrected the mid-1990s' Red Blooded anthem as the soundtrack for the latest advertising campaign for one of the country's top-selling beers.

Lion Red advertising has lurched through several incarnations in the past decade - What It Means to be a Man, Red Men, the Chinheads - and now with the return of the account to the men who created Red Blooded, the theme is back.

Meares Taine wrestled the Lion Red account off Saatchi & Saatchi in May, shortly after Lion said it was signing a death warrant for the Saatchi-created Chinheads, which it said were at risk of becoming boring.

Roy Meares and Jeremy Taine, who were with Saatchi when the firm created the original Red Blooded concept, have rejigged the "much-loved" song and spun in the tale of three likely lads out for a big night on the town.

The ad premiered simultaneously on the three major television channels on Monday night, reaching more than a million viewers.

"We've brought in a whole lot of characters in a great setting and told a completely different story from what we did in those first Red Blooded days," says Lion Nathan's category director, Doug Paulin.

"But we think the essence of it in terms of what we're going to deliver emotionally to our Red drinkers will be very similar to what it was when we played that original ad."

Lion has been picking the brains of Red drinkers through focus groups and one-on-one interviews, asking them why they drink the beer.

The findings were presented to Meares Taine, who then came up with the concept of rustic boys Gary, Rick and Spud's night out at a city karaoke bar.

"We've asked the punters what they want and they've told us they want the [Red Blooded] song back," says Paulin.

Asked about criticism of the brand's numerous changes of face, he says: "It's a fair point ... it's oscillated around in terms of what we've tried to communicate and where we've gone with the brand."

The "classic beer story" of the latest campaign will be used as a springboard for the the brand's future direction, he says.

"Going forward, hopefully this will be the ad that everyone liked. We've got to make a decision on where we take Lion Red from this position now."

Mainstream beers such as Lion Red and competitor DB Draught, which account for the bulk of the breweries' sales, have felt the pinch from growth in the budget and premium ends of the beer market.

Over at Dominion Breweries, national marketing manager Mark Jenner charitably describes the new Red ad as "a good remake of a classic ad" and "further evidence of the industry's commitment to the mainstream category".

GeneratorBates chief executive Andrew Stone, who was running Saatchi & Saatchi when the agency produced the original Red Blooded campaign, says the new commercial is a step back in the right direction for Lion Red.

But he believes it lacks the "special delivery" that actor Michael Hurst injected into the first commercial.

"Whilst it has a much better level of energy, it didn't quite have the tightness of the [original] idea of Red Blooded," Stone says.

"It felt a little bit like a montage from different beer commercials over the years."