James Ready barters for social space

With a small budget, James Ready has had to look beyond paid media, leveraging owned assets such as beer cases and bottle caps to communicate and connect with its drinkers.

For the 2012 holiday period, Leo Burnett created the "James Ready Cover Photo Swap," a social bartering system that allowed drinkers to swap their Facebook cover photo with that of the brand's (and vice versa).

The campaign was promoted on the James Ready Facebook page with the message "We'll give you this space, if you give us yours." Drinkers used the space to promote their business, spread the word about their band or upcoming concert, post resumes, sell things and even impress the ladies.

The brand's message appeared on fans' Facebook pages for a day, as well as in their newsfeed.

James Ready reached nearly six million people within the first three weeks of the campaign and page shares increased by 352%. It also achieved a 402% increase in post "likes" and its Facebook fan following grew by 37%.