Amsterdam Brewery is celebrating 30 years in Canada and one of its anchor brands, Boneshaker Unfiltered India Pale Ale, is leading the party with its latest and unconventional ad campaign. Unlike leading and competing beer brands, one slogan doesn’t do this beer justice, at its core the ad campaign leverages several surprising and fun visuals of the beer as well as multiple crafty taglines to tell the unique Boneshaker story.
“We are approaching our 30th anniversary as a local craft brewer in Toronto, marking the start of an important year for Amsterdam Brewery,” said Jeff Carefoote. “We are pleased to be celebrating this milestone with the launch of our first ad campaign for Boneshaker - a very unique brand of beer that exemplifies who we are as local brewers. We have our own craft, our own ideas on innovation, and we stubbornly won’t stray from either – just like we won’t justify just one tagline to describe who we are. Instead, we simply pour on. We pour on for thirsty individuals, inspired drinkers and locals. We pour on because we can’t imagine doing things any other way and that’s exactly what this campaign is all about.”
On the heels of winning Amsterdam’s Cask Days IPA challenge, a competition aimed at brewing a beer with a robust amount of hops while still being balanced, Boneshaker Unfiltered Pale Ale was born – crafted with copious amounts of hops and four malts. It’s a truly unique taste experience and an award-winning IPA. In three short years since its inception, Boneshaker Unfiltered Pale Ale has grown to be the leading IPA in Ontario. As one of the several beers in the Amsterdam portfolio, the hoppy Boneshaker is the local brewers most successful launch and one of the anchor brands in its portfolio.
The offspring of a brand that has become one of Canada’s favourite craft brewers and Toronto’s original brew pub, Boneshaker has grown a cult following of local craft beer drinking enthusiasts. With no mass marketing done up to this point, the brand earned its loyalists through word of mouth and cultivated a fan base who appreciate the taste and the fact that their beer was was brewed just down the street, that week. They also appreciate the brand’s unique packaging that was developed in-house by an Amsterdam employee – an illustrated skeleton riding an old school bicycle – which has extended to some merchandise like hats, tees and sweaters.
In an effort to drive awareness, distribution and sales growth for the brand, while still remaining true to its roots of being a local craft brewer and distinguished from the rest, the strategists and creative team at Bensimon Byrne, Boneshaker’s Toronto-based ad agency, collaborated with the brewery to develop an inventive advertising and media strategy that would do just that.
“Boneshaker is a craft brew that’s an Indian Pale Ale,” said Joseph Bonnici, Executive Creative Director, Bensimon Byrne. “Their mascot is a skeleton who rides a bicycle. To say the brand is irreverent is an understatement. Boneshaker revels in making fun of the beer industry, which takes itself too seriously, fawning over taste descriptors and pour shots that are more like beer porn. We flipped the conventional beer ad on its head and focused on what Boneshaker is all about – making the absolute best tasting beer. So we thought we'd describe the taste and feel of the beer in an endless number of ways while poking fun at the clichés of the category – surprising and endless slogans was the perfect approach for Boneshaker to take and something never before seen in the industry, and it works.”
The creative turned conventional beer shots and singular slogan into multiple surprising and fun shots, each with a unique tagline – creating a first-of-its-kind ad campaign that includes two 30 second spots, a 60-second spot, as well as complimentary out of home, print and retail on premise collateral managed by Amsterdam’s in-house team. Digital media planned by Bensimon Byrne Media launched last week with TV rolling out in this spring.
Client: Amsterdam Brewery
Brand: Boneshaker
Title: "Endless Slogans"
Creative Agency: Bensimon Byrne, Toronto
Executive Creative Director: Joseph Bonnici
Creative Director: Dan Strasser
Associate CD/Copywriter: Dave Mueller
Associate CD/Art Director: Gints Bruveris
Art Director: Jonathan Crandell
Group Account Director: Zeeshan Hussain
Program Director: Patricia Tay
Director of Production: Michelle Pilling
Producer: Meghan Cheesbrough
Director: Dan Kelly
Production House: Creative Soul
Post-Production: The Faculty
Audio: Grayson Matthews
via: GlossyInc.