The First Romanian Tapster

Hladinka, the traditional serving ritual of Pilsner Urquell beer is a fundamental part of the taste experience. The standard for the perfect draft is reached when the beer is poured with a special side tap and with 3 fingers of foam, which makes it a very different serving and pouring style than any other beer brand in Romania. As the serving style is an embedded part of the draft beer taste, Pilsner Urquell designed a global job called Tapster (which is for Pilsner Urquell what a ‘sommelier’ is to wine or a ‘barista’ is to coffee) – a bartender that ensures that every beer he serves is presented perfectly and has the right taste. Our challenge was to build awareness and desirability around the Tapster Job among the Romanian Bartenders community through a real recruitment campaign for a Pilsner Urquell Tapster.

We wanted to emulate the format of a talent show and communicate the Tapster job as the most desirable recognition for bartenders, so we split our campaign into three phases. During the first phase, we focused on establishing the TAPSTER meaning and defining the social status of this new job, through social media content and relevant influencers. All these pieces of content had a call-to-action for bartenders to apply for the Tapster job on the campaign website. The second phase was split between Pilsner Urquell’s HR teams, who had to find the right finalists, and our goal to amplify the subject and create more buzz around the first The reveal of the First Romanian Tapster was celebrated in a Grand Finale Event where four finalists presented their expertise (actual pouring competition) and motivations in front of an international jury.