Foster's TV ads have always focused on the leisurely Aussie lifestyle, playing on the theme of beers, beaches and BBQs to promote the popular lager. The challenge for agency EHS Brann was how to translate this feeling into direct marketing and start a lasting conversation with a young male audience.

To engage with the UK's extensive population of lager drinking men, by developing a relationship with the Foster's brand and getting recipients to participate in an online prize draw to win a year's supply of the Aussie lager. Creating a talking point around the lager's brand heritage could also prompt fans to blog or tweet about the amber nectar.

EHS Brann sent 18- to 24-year-old guys a letter from Cobber, Strewth and Digger solicitors, telling the recipient that he may have Aussie ancestry and be in line to receive an inheritance. All he had to do was to go online and take a simple test. And the inheritance: 12 cases of Foster's. Accompanying the letter was a mail pack which included a 'gentlemen's interest' magazine from years gone by - Sizzling Sheilas - which contained suggestive photos of Aussie ladies, the tongue in cheek inference being that one of the models could also be related to the recipient.

Research showed that 94% of recipients opened the mailing, with 91% claiming to have read it all the way through, while 18% of mail recipients logged on and entered the competition. The email campaign notched up an open rate of 17% and a click-through rate of 9%, all of which combined to significantly boost spontaneous brand awareness among the research group.

When a brand knows who its true fans are, it can set about turning them into brand ambassadors. Foster's has nailed the tricky part and used clever targeting to find out who those fans are and kicked off the first part of a long-term strategy by starting a conversation with this notoriously unresponsive audience.