James Ready Beer engages and celebrates its drinkers in a way that's been very different than other brands. With miniscule budgets, JR has always had to look beyond paid media to connect with its drinkers. Since its launch, JR has leveraged owned assets like beer cases and bottle caps to incite interaction with its drinkers, creating a small but loyal fan base.

But the gap between discount and mainstream was disappearing – the minimum price of beer increased and mainstream brands were going on sale more often – giving drinkers a reason to question the value of shopping this category. The changing landscape eroded the price advantage that JR historically enjoyed, and the brand was at risk of losing drinkers.

The objective was to retain loyalty and share of stomach through JR's strong connection with its drinkers, and acquire new fans by tapping into drinkers' networks of friends. The challenge was to do it with a budget of less than $10,000 and through owned assets.

While price was a factor in first bringing fans to the brand, what drinkers loved most wasn't the price, it was that JR put them at the centre of everything it did by shining the spotlight directly on them.

So JR would give them more of what they loved by giving over ownership of its most prized asset – its Facebook cover image.

The James Ready Cover Photo Swap was a simple bartering system that allowed drinkers to use JR's cover photo space if they let it use theirs. It started with a message in JR's cover photo: "We'll give you this space if you give us yours."

Drinkers used the space to talk to JR fans and promote business, spread the word about their bands or concerts, post resumes, sell things, show off their art, impress the ladies, endorse their motorcycle club and more. On the flip side, fans were able to help spread the JR word by giving up their Facebook cover photo space to JR so it could introduce itself to a new audience of friends, also appearing in their newsfeeds.

In the first three weeks of the program, the brand was able to reach almost six million people, say a 352% jump in page shares and a 402% jump in content likes, and, most importantly, we were able to grow our Facebook fans by 37%. And all this was achieved with a budget of less than $10,000.