The ‘Stella Tips’ campaign aims to celebrate staff behind the bar after the past year of closures, curfews and furloughs. It works to thank and support the hospitality industry that sells the Stella product.

The twofold campaign improves the brand’s reputation with customers in terms of community involvement while also strengthening relationships with those employed by pubs to serve the product.

Hospitality workforces have seen up to 10,000 outlets closed in 2020 with over a third of employees fearing for their long-term job security through lockdowns. Industry staff have directly seen salaries affected and this campaign recognises this personal impact.

The video showcases the scheme and brings it to both the consumer and business owner’s attention, as pubs must sign up in order to participate in the scheme. The short video shows consumers enjoying the Stella product in different forms but brings attention to the pub worker serving the beer and the minimal tips he receives. It ends with a call to action and memorable message ‘Order a Stella Artois to give a Stella tip’.

Ali Humphrey, European marketing director of Stella Artois says, “We want to put tipping back on the agenda, so we’re proud to be working with our largest beer brand, Stella Artois, to launch Stella Tips as our way of showing gratitude to those behind the bar. When the pubs re-open we’ll be raising a Stella, and a tip, to those who make the return of the hospitality industry possible.”

Up to £500,000 in tips will be raised and directly awarded to bar staff who will expect to see an average of £42.00 each in tips. This scheme will run between 12 April and 9 May.

The scheme also encourages consumers to opt for a pint of Stella over competing brands as they can ‘give back’ with no effort by simply choosing a Stella Artois product.

It follows the ‘Save Pub Life’ programme which ran through the first set of pub closures last year. It encouraged consumers to purchase gift cards to spend once the pubs reopened, with the Budweiser Brewing Group committing to match the gift cards up to £1.5 million throughout 2020.

The Stella Tips video campaign will run on televisions through April and has been widely shared across social media platforms. The brand also has a campaign page live on their website with additional information and content.