01. Creative

We bought in 'The Weapon', our clients name for the wonder that is Kate Paterson, our marketing guru, to help develop creative for the Super Chill Campaign. The idea of 'Super Chill mode' came up, and we decided to explore the 'switch' going from work mode to Super Chill mode, with cracking a can of Super Chill being the catalyst.

Our target market were 25-30 year olds who lived by the coast and were into the outdoors, socialising and music.

Together with the whole team from Akasha, listed a heap of scenarios that signal 'switching' from work mode to Super Chill mode. We shortlisted the ideas that would work best on video, specifically Tik-Tok for our target audience.

The creative for this campaign needed to not only appeal to this age group, but encourage them to engage with the brand as well. To do this, we had to get the visuals on point, enter the dream team.

02. The Shoot

Some people just have style, and some of those people know how to style not only themselves, but environments and other people too. Enter Matty Toon, from Port of Call Studios. We bought him on to give the shots the look that would best appeal to our target market, coastal with a taste of vintage. As we were working out of New Castle for the shoot, to capture everything in photos and video, the legends from 'Yeah Rad' out of Sydney joined the team for some off the cuff, and slightly gritty shots they are known for.

To keep to the budget, Akasha rounded up a crew of staff and friends who fit the look and age of the target market to be models for the shoot.

We picked 3 locations to shoot over one day, plus one very cool VW Beetle. Over the three locations, the models had different outfits, so by the end of the shoot, our content looked like we had shot over a week rather than a day.

03. Photography

While the primary medium of the campaign was video for Tik Tok, the staged scenes were also an opportunity to create a photo bank to use across socials and marketing. Yeah Rad captured A LOT, giving Akasha about a years worth of content to use from the one day shoot.

04. Videography

Although we had storyboarded our top ideas for 'Switch to Super Chill' mode and had planned scenes and props, we always allow for spontaneous creativity on set. Going with a flow often results in outcomes far better than planned and that is what happened at the shoot. A collaborative and creative experience, our dream team delivered the goods.

04. The Edit

You can have an Oscar winning level of filming but if your editor sucks, it does not matter. Selection of shots, timing of edits and precise animation are all vital to a successful video. The creative for this campaign was all about the relationship between switching modes, and the edits needed to show contrast and juxtaposition between the two modes....and we reckon we did it!

04. The Videos

To come! In the meantime head over the Akasha Brewing socials to check out the results

05. The Physical Campaign

With the videos out, we also designed a physical component to the campaign for off premise vendors (bottle shops) to encourage sales. Through a series of competitions, POS items like shelf talkers, posters and stackers the campaign was able translate from digital to physical sales.

01. Brand Foundation Workshop

We welcomed the Local Brewing Co (LBCo from here on) team into the studio for what ended up being a marathon session of nailing down key brand foundations, aspirations and a defined target audience. This workshop is summarised into a document which then acts as a guide for the entire branding project. We never start a branding project without running this workshop, I’ll let you know why in a future edition, but for now all you need to know is that this is a vital step in creating & maintaining a strong brand.

LCBCo is a purpose led business, their POD is that for every pint or 4 pack sold, a person in need gets a free meal through their charity partner SecondBite who rescue food to feed the hungry.

Furthermore, their Surplus Sour series rescues fruit destined for landfill and turns it into beer! As we all know, a POD is hard in a sea of craft brands, and theirs was a cracker! If their target customers understood this from the get go, it would be an easy sell, and could be the start of a loyal relationship.

02. Brand Audit

We took a look at everything LBCo had released in the past with their brand on it. We analysed how their current cans worked in the fridge against other brands, and examined their brand architecture (how their portfolio of releases work together). We summarised our findings in to these key points:

• Core message 'Drink a local. Make a difference' or similar communicating the purpose of the brand (inspire and drive real impact)
• Disjointed visuals across promotions
• Missed opportunities of unique story telling (eg who benefits from LBCo, Surplus Sour and the communicating their POD)

LCBCo is a purpose led business, their POD is that for every pint or 4 pack sold, a person in need gets a free meal through their charity partner SecondBite who rescue food to feed the hungry.

Furthermore, their Surplus Sour series rescues fruit destined for landfill and turns it into beer! As we all know, a POD is hard in a sea of craft brands, and theirs was a cracker! If their target customers understood this from the get go, it would be an easy sell, and could be the start of a loyal relationship.

03. Logo Evolution

We decided that an evolution rather than a revolution of the brand was required. LBCo were still a small operation, completely changing their logo could risk isolating their current customer base. Furthermore, their current logo at the time did a good job, it was bold and stood out on the shelf. We just needed to push it forward to communicate the POD.

The result! The addition of an icon that represented the POD through arrows representing the sustainable & full circle attitudes of the brand, which they achieve through beer. Plus we included their core message as a tagline to drive home the POD.

04. Packaging Evolution (bordering on a revolution!)

LBCo’s original core range packaging had strong colour palette that matched their tone of voice outlined in the brand foundation. The graphics, while bold and striking, didn’t communicate anything in particular, they just looked good. We pounced on the opportunity to create a visual that communicated the POD, told their story and was flexible across their brand touch points (packaging, signage, merch etc). Keeping the colour palette from the previous core range beers worked to help customers over the bridge from old to new. Apart from the Lager, which was an entirely new beer.

We designed a mural style pattern that told the story of LBCo beer, from harvesting grains, brewing, distribution, to their charity partner cooking meals from reclaimed food, to the beers being served and enjoyed in different scenarios by a diverse range of people. We then split this pattern up into three sections, to use on the three different core beers, and recoloured to suit.

05. Brand Application

Brand systems are what it’s all about, having a system ensures consistency throughout all your brand touchpoints, which equals strength, which equals the big one, brand equity. We designed the LBCo’s brand system using their core range cans, then applied this system to all the brand touch points. The pattern became a key element of the rebrand, with its unique illustrative style and flexibility, we applied this graphic to vehicle graphics, merch, cartons, tap decals and even the painted mural in the tap room.

06. Communicating to Customers

Once the new artwork was complete and in production, letting customers know a change was coming was super important. People feel ownership over brands they love, and if there is a sudden change to them, they can (subconsciously) feel a little betrayed! Yep, we are a funny lot, us humans. Rebranding can run the risk of turning away existing customers in order to chase new ones. The existing customer base need to be treated with the care they deserve for their loyalty. So a careful social media campaign was executed by LBCo to communicate this as well as letting their on and off premise customers know via email and directly as well.