Newcastle Brown Ale is back with another tongue-in-cheek marketing pitch, and this one promises to give people money.
In a campaign that launched Monday night, the Heineken USA-imported brand is promising to pay the first 50,000 people who follow the brand on Twitter a dollar each. Yes, a whole dollar, because as the brand says in the video above, why should people "endure the unsolicited marketing of other beer brands for free when you can endure Newcastle's unsolicited marketing and get paid?"
Newcastle could have created a "cool fan contest" or come up with "exclusive content" or "make up a unique hashtag," the video concedes. But "that takes a lot of work and it's summer and we'd rather just get out of here."
The video calls "B.S. on the game of follower-chasing (in typical Newcastle fashion)," a spokesman said in an emailed statement.
The effort -- called "Follow the Money" -- will be supported with paid ads on Twitter and Facebook. It continues the sarcastic "No Bollocks" campaign that has included lighthearted ribbing of conventional beer-selling ploys. Earlier this year the brand spent the days leading up to the Super Bowl running over-the-top teasers ads for a campaign that it never ran, as a way to poke fun at highly produced, expensive Super Bowl ads.
Agencies working on "No Bollocks" include Droga5 for creative, Fast Horse for PR and MediaVest for media.