Beer, Wine & Spirits
The alcohol industry has changed dramatically over the many years we’ve worked in beer, wine, and spirits branding, and our industry work has followed—and sometimes even helped shape—these exciting shifts. From the storm surge of craft beer popularity and the emergence of RTDs, to the bourbon renaissance and rise in popularity of zero-proof options, our portfolio of brands can be traced like a timeline for the alcohol space.
As a branding agency focused on consumer goods, hospitality, and lifestyle, the beer, wine, and spirit industries remain the most dynamic and competitive arenas in our practice, even today.
We’ve seen and grown a lot since 2010, and our team has celebrated several big wins with client partners large and small. For example, our global rebrand of Southern Comfort for Brown-Forman saw us working to align a renaissance for the spirits brand across continents, touching Germany, the UK, Australia, and Emerging Africa. Combined with a stellar ad campaign by W+K, the result was a sale to Sazerac for $544 million. On the flip side of the coin in terms of size, our partnership with Lone River Ranch Water to launch and grow the then-small hard seltzer brand at a juggernaut pace resulted in an unprecedented sale to Diageo after less than a year on shelves.
The Impact of a Brewery’s Brand
From fabled craft beer legend Sierra Nevada to breweries in planning in Shenzhen, China, Oregon’s Cascade Gorge, and dozens more across the country, the contrast between working with startup beer brands and large, established breweries is equally exhilarating and fulfilling for our team.
Our brewery branding early in the craft beer boom catapulted the launch of Modern Times, which soon topped the Brewers Association’s list of fastest-growing and top-producing breweries. Our innovative beer branding for Austin Beerworks sparked an industry renaissance in craft beer branding that can still be seen today. The bold yet uncomplicated packaging cut through the clutter of chaotic, unorganized cans lining shelves and immediately grabbed attention nationwide. In the years since, the industry has followed suit, and we have crafted seasonal packaging and advertising campaigns to keep them ahead of the pack. We made global news and helped sell more beer by introducing the world’s first 99-pack of beer.
As we built new brands shaping craft beer we partnered with industry icons New Belgium and Boulevard to build new innovative products and revamp a beloved Kansas City institution, respectively. Though grander in scale, we found in these instances that the passion for craft, quality, and innovation burns just as hot with the big guys as it does with a scrappy startup.
New Belgium needed a strong beer branding firm to take insights from craft beer branding and leverage them to tap the growing cider market. The process of building brand strategy, designing and optimizing branding and packaging, and testing for validation purposes proved a success and soon lead us to start to build a new addition to their brand architecture: THC beverages for the cannabis-curious craft beer drinker.
Boulevard Brewing was on the cusp of a milestone: 30 years as the definitive Midwest craft beer brand. Unfortunately sales had begun to flatten and research lead to a startling discovery: A lack of recognizable consistency across their packaging meant that many drinkers could name their beers, but had no idea who brewed them.
An audit and repositioning helped to build a stronger brand system that shoppers could recognize, keep top of mind, and associate the brewery with their great beer. Little was left unchanged, but our goal of making sure long term fans would recognize and embrace the new look and feel was a success. Along the way it generated new attention from drinkers. With beer branding trends seemingly always in flux, a brand refresh for a beer brand can yield remarkable results.
Wine and Spirits Branding
In the years since helping to shape the face of craft beer, we’ve enjoyed partnerships with several wine and spirits brands eager to build, bolster, and reinvigorate their own unique products and brands.
At this writing, we are working to refresh several wineries and hospitality destinations, blending food and beverage with lush, immersive hospitality branding experiences that range from farm-to-table dining to adventure excursions and luxury boutique hotels. Contrasting those longstanding brands, we helped establish a new low-alcohol, no-compromise wine category.
Our spirits work with Jack Daniel’s, Southern Comfort, and other large brands allowed our branding work to reach global scale, from collaborations across continents to the center of Times Square. We continue to work with the innovators at Bespoken Spirits and other companies to build personality-driven brands that have caught fire on social media, with partners Lynyrd Skynyrd, Whiskey Myers, Taye Diggs, and a stable of other celebrity entrepreneurs. Astro’s superstar Alex Bregman’s Wild Sol Salsa isn’t technically in the spirits space, but it is infused with Flecha Azul Tequila. You can catch actor Wyatt Russell grinning with our Lake Hour cans on Late Night and the morning shows with his dad.
An Eye Toward the Future
Whether you’re in craft beer, wine, or spirits, we create dynamic brands that bring joy, shape culture, and drive results. In the wake of seismic shifts in the alcohol landscape, we see tremendous opportunity. A fragmented and volatile marketplace offers a disruptive upstart or brave icon the chance to cut through the clutter and make a significant impact.
Imagination, originality, authenticity, and even audacity are evergreen, and brands that harness them hold the key to connecting with people emotionally in real and meaningful ways. Underpinned by intelligent positioning, strategy, and brand architecture, these brands are poised to spark transformative change in the alcohol industry. You can learn more about our approach to creating thoughtful and impactful branding and packaging here by selecting the services section.
We are optimistic, energized, and excited about what we see on the horizon for the alcohol industry. We look forward to more decades years of industry disruption and legacy-defining collaboration. Let’s get started together.
