Hobgoblin’s 2020 Halloween advertising, experiential and PR campaign has moved onto phase two with a radical interpretation of beer and food pairing, but with a wicked wink.
Highlighting the campaign’s ‘Best Sipped in the Dark’ strapline, Hobgoblin has launched a special Beer & Bugs Snack Pack, available now online*.
And, during Halloween Week, restaurateur James Ramsden will be creating a special insect-rich menu at his acclaimed restaurant, Pidgin, in London’s Hackney. The menu combines three insect dishes as canapés and one as a sweet finale – all matched to Hobgoblin beers – alongside a starter, main course and dessert.
At the preview event for the Halloween Week menu, guests wore blindfolds to experience insect antipasti ‘in the dark’. The event was filmed for social media, showing how Hobgoblin’s beers and well-cooked insects can form some very special pairings.
The antipasti menu includes:
- Hobgoblin IPA – Spiced raw beef ‘larb’ with spicy crispy crickets and lettuce
- Hobgoblin Gold – Cricket Flour Blinis, soured cream, smoked salmon, caviar and fried crickets
- Hobgoblin Ruby – Grasshopper Gougeres – cheese puffs stuffed with a grasshopper ramp’ant and finished with garlic and parsley butter
- King Goblin – Buffalo Worm Truffles – chocolate and cherry truffles coated in a crispy buffalo worm and hazelnut praline
Hobgoblin’s brand manager, Joanne Wyke, comments:
“Hobgoblin has always pushed the boundaries and looked to the future of food or drink, so working with Ramsden and Pidgin was a great chance to do both.
People have paired beers before with the likes of chocolate or cheese or smoked foods or curries – but they have never looked at the future – to pair beers with insects: And we are very encouraged that sales of our new Hobgoblin Beer & Bugs Snack Pack are already flying.”
Each Hobgoblin Beer & Bugs Snack Pack contains not just the roast crickets and 16 cans of Hobgoblin beers but also the ‘Best Sipped’ eye mask, the Wychwood Brewery 2/3-pint glass and the Goblin’s Beer & Bug matching card.
James Ramsden commented on the Pidgin dinner:
“This was about pairing delicious canapé dishes, which use bugs, with some fantastic beers from Hobgoblin. Traditionally people think of wine when it comes to food pairing; but the flavour profiles in beer are so rich and varied and interesting – perfect for food pairings.
Insects are incredibly high in protein, low in carbohydrate, low in sugar: This is not some sort of novelty experiment, because we can all learn how to appreciate the relative normality of eating bugs; after all, ultimately we are quite happy to eat things like prawns, which are really just sea bugs.”
See a short video of the beer and bug tasting at Pidgin on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OpIGMRmaEAU
Hobgoblin’s four-month August to November campaign will play across multiple media channels: fly posting, D48s, digital screens, banners, murals, experiential, social media and PR. All of the Halloween campaign content will be hosted on the Hobgoblin website: https://www.wychwood.co.uk/
https://www.pidginlondon.com/ shows the current week’s menu.
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EDITORS’ NOTES
Hobgoblin IPA has been voted ‘Best English Style IPA’ in the UK by The World Beer Awards 2020. Hobgoblin’s King Goblin has just been voted ‘Best Dark Beer in the UK’ by the same awards.
Hobgoblin is Britain’s third biggest selling Premium Bottled Ale.
Consumer spending on Halloween has almost doubled since 2013 to become the second biggest drinking occasion after New Year’s Eve, and the third most popular retail event after Easter and Christmas. 77% of millennials spend specifically on Halloween, and it over indexes with females. 49.5 million pints of Hobgoblin has sold in the UK in last 12 months, and during lockdown the beer has delivered phenomenal growth, proving its status as a trusted national brand.
Hobgoblin is considered by many as the original craft beer (MBC Eureka! Survey 2020).
*The Hobgoblin Beer & Bugs Snack Pack, RRP £32, is available from the web shop: https://www.wychwood.co.uk/shop/hobgoblin-beer-bugs-snack-pack