Maes - RMB & Slice make friendship fizz
Clarify your brand’s positioning and revive product appeal with memorable storytelling.
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When a brand’s positioning remains unclear in consumers’ minds, it’s hard to inspire attachment and consideration. Too often, quality brands struggle to stand out, lost in a crowded market. And trying to assert a brand’s positioning through repetitive slogans is no longer enough.
The solution? Activate the brand and focus on the audience’s lived experience. In other words, create a meaningful narrative that embodies the brand’s values while awakening emotions. Storytelling is a powerful tool to strongly assert a brand’s positioning. When supported by original, authentic content and distributed through the right channels, it becomes a strategic lever to move the brand from the background to full endorsement.
This is exactly the bet Maes made. Get inspired by the campaign orchestrated by Slice, the content agency linked to RMB, which helped the famous Belgian beer stand out in the “festive drinks” category and become the beer that embodies good moments shared among friends through immersive content.
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Create a connection, create content
To achieve its ambition of becoming the iconic beer for moments among friends, Maes imagined the Maes Mates Cup concept — the true thread of its summer advertising campaign, designed to anchor the brand at the heart of friendly moments and support its on-ground activations.
To take the concept even further, the advertiser teamed up with content agency Slice to craft a smart 360° communication plan. By blending content and media, the goal was to position Maes as the ultimate spark for simple, fun moments with friends — all while boosting brand consideration
- Advertiser: Alken-Maes
- Target: Adults 18+
- Goal: strengthen brand identity and increase consideration
- Period: April to September 2025
- Format: video episode series
- Main media: social networks (Instagram & YouTube) plus TV (AB3)
With De / Les Maes Games, our goal was to reinforce Maes’ role as the go-to beer for feel-good, social moments — but we knew we needed more than just visibility. We wanted to build real relevance with our audience. Slice didn’t just bring the idea to life — they came up with the concept itself. Their content-first approach, rooted in authenticity, paired the right creators with a format that challenges real friend groups to step out of their comfort zones and celebrate togetherness in a new way. The campaign has just launched, but it already hits the tone we were aiming for — natural, local, and genuinely engaging. Early KPIs are very promising, and we’re excited to see how it continues to build momentum throughout the summer.
A simple yet powerful idea: a friendship challenge
To position Maes as the ultimate vibe-setter for moments with friends, Slice came up with and brought to life the Maes Games. Two groups of friends — one French-speaking, the other Dutch-speaking — face off in playful challenges that push them out of their comfort zones and spice up their usual hangouts. Led by well-known Belgian content creators, the teams take on quirky dares and inspire other friend groups to shake up their own routines. The campaign taps into strong storytelling and the creators’ infectious energy to spark engagement and bring Maes to life in real, spontaneous, and feel-good moments.
Key concept points:
- A strong central concept: Maes awakens friendship and takes it further.
- Storytelling rooted in real life: real friends, real moments.
- A “content first” strategy designed to generate strong organic impact on social media.
- Immersive formats offered in three variants: Hero Content (creators challenge themselves and try something new), Hub Content (creators involve friend groups in playful challenges), and Top Topicals (creators punctuate the campaign with videos inspired by current events).
- A national campaign with French & Dutch-speaking creator squads.
- Recognized personalities in the Belgian content world: Malicia & Salva, LuxleSeul, Angel, etc.
- A long-term campaign running throughout summer (April to September).
Powering up organic with paid media
The media strategy mainly focuses on organic content. It leverages the strong impact of well-chosen talents who share their playful and original content with their large Instagram and YouTube follower communities.
To boost Maes’ visibility, the action is also supported by a paid media campaign and TV presence on AB3.
A smart rollout across the right channels:
- a carefully curated lineup of content creators to ensure a rich mix of communities, tones, and engagement levels.
- 100 pieces of content produced across all platforms and languages.
- main distribution via the creators’ own Instagram and YouTube channels to keep things close, personal, and truly authentic.
- a targeted paid media push on Meta and Google to give the campaign maximum reach.
- additional amplification on AB3 TV, with long-format Hero Content spots to boost visibility even further.