Southpaw Helps Estrella Galicia Super-Charge Growth in UK and Ireland

Estrella Galicia launched in the UK and Ireland in 2012, first building credibility with Spanish restaurants at grassroots level, and then developing a distribution strategy across national retailers and pub networks. With a strong core audience secured, there was one issue preventing the brand strengthening its dominance: Spanish home market comms were somewhat lost in translation for UK and Irish audiences. It was time for a repositioning piece developed by Southpaw to enable this admired beer brand to meet its ambitious business objectives. 

As a brand, Estrella Galicia has a unique story to tell, one that is underpinned by strong values, family run for 116 years, and unchanged brewing methods. Using their unique neuro-mapping tool, Southpaw identified the likes and behaviours specific to the target audience - an unconventional consumer group who appreciates originality and is turned off by exaggeration and a lack of detail. 

By combining these critical audience and brand insights, Southpaw created the brand platform ‘A Beer Like No Other’. It is designed to honour Estrella Galicia’s core values while landing Estrella Galicia effectively with its distinctive target consumer. The creative uses a confident and witty tone of voice paired with a 'hand-crafted' visual style to share their impressive brand story. 

Lindsay Castling, Estrella Galicia brand manager (UK and Ireland), said: “We chose Southpaw for this project as their route was based on science rather than opinion. They truly understood how to speak to our audience and delivered a compelling campaign at pace and with genuine passion. 

“Adapting global assets to a local market is essential but not easy to do so successfully; Southpaw strove to understand the cultural nuances of our brand and ensured they were translated in a way that was culturally appropriate to the UK & Ireland but that respected the heart of Estrella Galicia.

“The ‘Beer Like No Other’ campaign has given us a message that is understood by both our customers and our consumers and allowed us to enter new areas of the market successfully and professionally with a striking look and feel.” 

Glenn Smith, Southpaw creative director said: “Our creative platform ‘A Beer Like No Other’ is a playful twist on the fast paced world of craft beer innovation and a reminder that sometimes the old ways are the best! That slow can beat fast. That small can beat big. And that the individual can beat the crowd.”

The brand campaign had a soft launch at the end of 2021 across digital and OOH, including a bespoke mural in Shoreditch high street, and will continue to have media peaks throughout Spring and Summer this year.