Winter Palace
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"As the big day approached, there was some doubt among the ranks about whether people would really come. Sweden was going to play Hungary in football the same day as the gathering would take place. To enable as many as possible to participate, Erik Torudd and Sven Lundberg therefore decided to split the information meeting into three different sessions throughout the day. They also realized that they needed some sort of attraction to draw people in. When the doors were flung open to the grand ball and concert halls of the Winter Palace at Norra Bantorget in Stockholm, people poured in. The great film and revue actors Stig Järrel, Sickan Carlsson, and Gösta Bernhard warmed up the audience with some entertainment. Then Erik Torudd took over and accounted for sales figures from Lund. They showed that retailers who sold cream in bulk only earned five öre per half liter. The reason was mainly the loss that occurred during the measurements in the cream measures. With tetra packaging, however, the stores could earn 20 öre per half liter, claimed Erik Torudd. The three performances were a success. In total, over 5,000 people came and the week after, Stockholm’s tetra sales increased from 3,000 to an incredible 43,000 packages."
"When we launched, St Petersburg was trying to build its reputation as a ‘beer capital’ and had a ‘beer day’, with the three main breweries selling their wares in Hermitage Square in front of the Winter Palace. We saw this event as an opportunity for our own kind of beer revolution. We went to the mayor’s department, told them that we now had a brewery and said we’d like a stand. They gave us some space but said no advertisements or bottles were allowed. There were rock bands and close to a million people turned up for a kind of one-day Oktoberfest, and we took the event by storm. We had just started rolling out our TV campaign and billboards but we didn’t have a marquee or anything like that. We just had 40-foot container lorries decked out with brilliant logos of our design, acting effectively as mobile billboards."