Derrick Lin

Global

Art Director: Britney Beeby
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Copy Writer: Brody Rossiter 
Partner Brewery: Northern Monk
Client: HonestBrew
Location: London, UK
Packaging Contents: Beer
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Tin can

Overview
The beer ‘Free Lunch’ was born from many voices – over 2100 people helped HonestBrew create a recipe and name a beer online, resulting in each person receiving 3 free cans of beer. The challenge was to create a beer label that reflected the voice of the people who had a hand in creating it, and the means to which HonestBrew had been able to brew and gift over 6300 free beers. By winning a cycling competition for London startups, we secured the finances to treat our customers (and impress new ones). The use of a bicycle wheel’s spokes in the design is a nod to our cycling win & conveys the fact that they, the people, spoke… and we listened.

Background
After winning the Tour de Tech, a 6 month cycling race for London start-ups, and securing money to put towards a marketing campaign, rather than spending the prize on ourselves and our own advertising, HonestBrew decided to brew a beer for beer fans. That’s where the customers came in – by voting online for a style, strength, flavour and appearance of the beer, and proceeding to vote for a name. The label was applied to a once off, limited run of 14 000 cans.

Creative Solution
Inspired by the many miles our champs spent peddling away for the greater good, the label displays the spokes of a bicycle, reflecting the people who spoke, and had their say, with regards to the creation of the beer and it’s name, ‘Free Lunch’. The isolated spokes lead the viewer’s eye around the can, to where the name, breweries and ingredients are listed. The use of negative space in certain areas allows the can to shine through the label adding highlights and a depth of field to the design.

Who Is Honestbrew?
HonestBrew is a leading online craft beer retailer. We champion over 250 independent craft breweries worldwide. The can design had positive feedback online, with many happy recipients stating that they loved the clear association between the cycle race and the craft beer lovers having spoken. The can is best viewed in direct sunlight, while cold – straight out of the fridge. The campaign as a whole was successful in winning us 5000 email addresses and therefore potential new leads.

How Did The Campaign Roll Out?
The entire campaign ran from May 2017 – August 2017 in its entirety. It began with a (mandatory) billboard, as well as email sends, organic social posts and spend towards social advertising targeting craft beer lovers to navigate to our website, fill in their email address & take a quiz to help HonestBrew create a beer recipe, receiving 3 free beers delivered to their door for their trouble. We brewed in collaboration with Northern Monk brewery, one of the UK’s best craft breweries. We used our usual E-commerce distribution model – shipping using Yodel and Royal Mail from our warehouse in the Midlands. 14 000 cans of Free Lunch were made, 6900 given away for free & a further 7100 sold at a retail value of £7.90 for 3 or £2,49 each. The final Free Lunch beer was awarded a 92% rating on Ratebeer.com, and an Untappd.com rating of 3,82 out of 5.

What’s Unique?
Rather than spending £40 000 of prize money on advertising ourselves, HonestBrew jumped at the opportunity to literally gift free beer to beer lovers in the UK, in exchange for their opinions when creating the recipe for the beer. Aside from this the label design made use of negative space and opaque areas on the label to show strips of the silver can below, which reflected the light when handled, giving the bicycle spokes a 3D feel.