Crawler
Integrated Marketing Campaign
September 2025 - December 2025
Advertising, social media, direct mail, and experiential event strategies developed for Crawler Beverage Company and their ready-t0-drink alcoholic beverages. This campaign was developed over the course of three and half months and pitched to the client, co-founder, Chris Campaner.
Problem: Crawler, an Ontario-based alcoholic beverages brand, is a new player in an oversaturated ready-to-drink (RTD) market. They need help to cut through the noise to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to their e-commerce platform, and motivate conversion (online sales and newsletter sign-ups to collect first-party data).
Insight: Crawler’s target audience, the Corporate Crushers (adults aged 25-34) want to have fun like they used to in college, but don’t want to drink like they used to in college.
Solution: Crawler is the guilt-free drink option for a party or a night out, made with no added sugars, natural flavouring, and sparkling water instead of soda. With Crawler, you can have fun, without the regret the next morning.
Campaign Strategy
The “No More” Campaign uses the brand’s witty, unserious, and tongue-in-cheek brand voice to present humourous and relatable situations often resulting from a night out. It positions Crawler as the solution to lose those nights of regret, but to keep the fun and spirit of partying with your friends.
The campaign will run for five months from the beginning of April to the end of August to capitalize on major spring and summer holidays and summer weekends when alcohol sales peak.
Advertising Strategy
All ads were created in adherence to Ad Standards Canada’s guidelines for advertising alcoholic beverages.
Out-of-Home (OOH) & Digital Ads
The Creative is copy-forward, using the format “No More (Scenario) Nights of Regret” to create entertainment by rotating different scenarios while still maintaining a visual that is on-brand and recognizable when repeatedly exposed to it. The drink cans act as the branding logo and a clear CTA is included on each ad to drive action after awareness.
The Media selection is an omni-channel approach. Informed by secondary research, out-of-home (OOH) and digital are the two touch-points with the highest effective reach. These two work together as a funnel: out-of-home ads placed in high traffic physical locations like the PATH and King Street West in Toronto work to drive brand awareness, and digital ads placed on frequently visited social media platforms and contextually-relevant websites work to drive conversion, leading interested targets to take action by purchasing from the brand’s website.
Social Media Strategy
Instagram and TikTok are recommended social media platforms for the brand to be active on to encourage brand discovery and brand loyalty, based on the target audience’s media habits.
Content Strategy: Brand takes on viral trends and cultural moments increases the brand’s reach, while influencer and UGC content build trust and authenticity.
Social Media Management: Without a dedicated marketing team, we recommend the use of tools like Hootsuite and HeyOrca! to manage content planning, cross-posting, brand health monitoring, performance metrics, and community management.
Direct Mail Strategy
Inspired by the brand Zappos’s personalized notes added into orders, the client wants Crawler to also be known for customer care and authentic relationship-building. Based on research, the client’s target audience likes and remembers brands that give them marketing that is tangible and intentional. Direct mail introduces the brand to their audiences with this value in mind, using the brand’s cheeky voice and a reverse psychology approach. The promotion code and QR code encourage the target to visit the website and make a purchase.
Experiential Event Strategy
Mid-way through the campaign, an event invites local nano and micro-influencers to create buzz around the Crawler brand.
The Gallery of Regret, located in Toronto’s Distillery District, is a satirical “cabinet of curiosities” meets The Twilight Zone inspired experience. Guests step into Crawler’s cautionary, and hilariously relatable, tales of nights out gone wrong.
Guided paths are lined with tall glass cases, each with a living statue (an actor) frozen in a moment of mid-regret. For example, one display hold a living statue frozen while looking down at his phone in horror. A speaker next to the display narrates the terrifying tale:
At the end of the gallery, a glowing sign appears: No More Nights of Regret. And on the other side is Crawler’s “no regret” version of a night out: a private patio buzzing with energy, a DJ, photo ops, and brand ambassadors handing out complimentary Crawlers.
The goal of this event is to get the target to engage face-to-face with Crawler, to increase brand awareness through earned media from photos and videos of the event and to get them to sample the product.
Key Performance Indicators
For this campaign’s marketing efforts towards increasing brand awareness will be tracked through metrics including:
Impressions
Brand Search Volume/Mentions
Website Traffic
Earned Media
For this campaign’s marketing efforts towards motivating conversion will be tracked through metrics including:
Conversion Rate
Return on Ad Spend
Advertising Value Equivalency
Bounce Rate
