Why This Canadian Brewer Promised Nothing More or Less than ‘Just Good Beer’
While perhaps not as culturally swanky as wine pairings, finding the right opportunities and occasions for the right style of beer is a time-honoured tradition. An IPA and some curry? Great combo. A light lager and some spicy food? Excellent! Some cheap brews of any variety out of the fridge after helping a friend move? Perfection.
But, in recent years, this may have gone too far. Extreme, unexpected, and arguably dubious beer flavours have flooded the Canadian market, leaving in their wake a swath of beverages that either probably shouldn’t be called beer, sacrifice taste for novelty ingredients, or are idolised by sycophants who spout off pretentious gibberish about why they’re cooler for their selection. So, in 2020, when Halifax-based brewery Propeller Brewing launched its year-round ‘Prime Lager’, the brand was sure that an easy, drinkable brew that pairs with anything (including nothing) and actually tastes like - well - beer, would land effectively in the market.
Unfortunately, it would not be this easy. Not only was Prime competing in the oversaturated 12-pack beer market, but with Propeller having established itself locally as a well-reputed craft brewery, the intended audience was not being spoken to in a meaningful or convincing fashion. The solution? A fresh advertising campaign.
Created by Halifax-based agency Shortstop, ‘Just Good Beer’ launched earlier this year, aiming to bring Prime to a wider audience by running social ads and out-of-home executions like billboards and digital ferry terminal posters. Specifically revolving around the theme of doing away with pretentious branding, the ads rejected the genre’s typical bells and whistles of epic landscapes and overly-spritzed beer cans, instead opting for basic designs and fun taglines such as ‘Aged 4 hours in your buddy’s fridge’. After all, at the end of the day, when it comes to beer, it’s what’s on the inside that counts!
LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with Shortstop’s creative director Sam Archibald, managing director Peter Woodward, and Propeller Brewing marketing manager Laurie Diver to learn more, and discuss why brutally honest (and fun) marketing was the right call for this situation.
LBB> What was the brief for this campaign, and what immediate ideas came to mind?
Laurie> Current customers in the 12-pack lager space are looking for great tasting, crushable, thirst-quenching beer. Although Prime is priced at an affordable rate, customers are not solely price-driven. As the first sub-brand of Propeller Brewing Co., an established, well-known craft brewer in Nova Scotia, we took for granted the impact our parent brand had and realised the missing piece was a clear brand character. We needed to find a way to make it stand out from the competitors.
We reached out to Shortstop to get the conversation going, and knew right away it was the right fit based on the agency's understanding of the market, previous experience with the local liquor board, and suggested approach to tackling the brand development. The team came to the table with three stellar pitches for the brand, and worked closely with us to develop the brand book and messaging.
Peter & Sam> Our brief and recommendation for the brand was to launch a campaign that created a platform or personality for the brand that could carry them forward. We knew that the product [Prime] was well-received when customers tried it, that it is competitively priced, and that its distribution was wide across the province. What was also clear was that promotions focused on price and generic product attributes weren’t connecting with customers. We could see that awareness was low in the category of 12-pack lagers.
LBB> In an age where so many campaigns are digital, what made OOH and social the right approach to change this? And creatively speaking, what did your initial process look like?
Peter & Sam> We first sat down with Laurie and the team from Propeller to discuss where they’ve been, where they are, and where they want to go with Prime Lager. Creatively, this meant we looked at the category of lagers and similar beers to see how they run their social media, how they advertise their beer, and what their packaging/photography says about them. One of the major observations was that the big breweries were trying to look small and off the cuff, while the small breweries were trying to look big and professional. As such, we knew that any creative concept we did needed to go in a different direction to stand out. Because the product lacked awareness, and we were competing with some of the biggest names in beer, we saw a push through mass media as a means of inserting Prime into the lineup of beers a regular lager drinker would go for.
LBB> Building on this, what made dialling back the campaign the right way to stand out?
Peter & Sam> We had some other ideas that leaned into the local nature, and one that imagined the beer as an autonomous entity bent on infiltrating your fridge, but eventually landed on an approach that felt accurate to the beer and its origins. Propeller wanted to make a beer the big guys would make… just better. It’s the ‘prime’ option in the category, and it’s really just good beer. It’s not hoppy or sour like many non-craft drinkers might assume, and it’s also not marketed as a craft product. That was intentional - no mention of craftiness or artisanal brewing methods. You can tell when you’ve landed somewhere that feels right for a brand, and this approach did that more than the others.
LBB> Let’s talk about the work itself - the captions are brilliant! What was the writing process like, and do you have any you’re particularly proud of?
Peter & Sam> Thank you! Copy driven work is difficult because it’s not always as captivating as people-focused stories, but our goal out the gates was to create something that others weren’t doing in the market. There is a cheeky side to this; we wanted to take the piss out of the big breweries or other guys who market their products with tasting notes. After all, the average beer drinker doesn’t really care what notes or hints go into the beer!
Ultimately, it was a collaborative effort between the Shortstop team, Liz Colville, a fantastic writer we work with, and the Propeller team. I love the ‘Aged 4 hours in your buddy’s fridge’ line because it goes at the pretence seen with so much alcohol.
LBB> And what was the actual design process like? How did you fuse photography, font and colour to make memorable final work?
Peter & Sam> Our strongest inspiration was the product packaging, and in turn it inspired by the process itself (bright aluminium, gold and black are colours that stood out when we saw how and where Prime is brewed). This helped inform this raw, industrial look which didn’t take itself too seriously. There was also a transparency to the design we wanted to put into it, hence the printer's marks, and the slight distressing pattern present on the work. Finally, the typography is taken straight from the can, so the tone felt cohesive.
LBB> Where did you place the ads, and what factors contributed to these decisions?
Peter & Sam> We wanted to hit high-traffic areas around Halifax, and we went with billboards and ferry terminals. There also were social media ads run on Instagram to further build awareness and reach more people.
LBB> What challenges have you faced during this project? How did you overcome them?
Peter> It’s equally scary and exciting to face a blank page with any new project, and because Prime didn’t have the personality or brand equity among its audience, it was a fun challenge.
Sam> In any creative development, taking yourself out of your own head and what you like is part of the challenge. I’m not a drinker anymore, but when I did, I was the guy buying 10 different craft beers with the most ridiculous flavours I could find. Prime is not necessarily for me, but I can appreciate the fact that it’s just a good beer - one you can depend on to be reliable and tasty, and also be the perfect answer to ‘wanna have a beer?’.
LBB> What lessons have you learned in the making of this campaign?
Peter & Sam> To not be afraid to look at the product or the service, or at what’s going on in its production, creation, or origins to find inspiration. This campaign is really built on the no-fuss, no-pretence attitude behind the Propeller team’s inspiration for the product, and we took that mentality and just crafted the campaign around that. It was already there - we just had to uncover it!
LBB> Finally, how have people reacted to this campaign?
Peter & Sam> We’re mid-flight, but so far so good. And, we’re just excited to see the messaging and personality out there in the wild. Propeller also just launched a new brew pub here in Halifax that has a drive through (a hit with Maritimers), so seeing our campaign on the signage there was very cool!
