Independent creative agency Richards Rose, since becoming equity partners in White Bay Brewery, have been working on re-setting the brand and business to grow during a challenging period for the beer industry.
“Our business partners, Richards Rose were honest about the need to appeal beyond the category cues of beer and being lumped in with the rest of craft beer," White Bay Brewery co-founder Adam Trippe-Smith said.
"This confronted all of us, but when we saw the strategy and the work, we moved to ‘comfortably uncomfortable’ mode and committed the entire business to this distinctive shift for White Bay Brewery.
"This has helped us open up great partnerships with the Swans and Merivale at the SCG and SFS among many more channels along with more capital to support growth."
Richards Rose CCO Adam Rose said taking a master brand approach to the design, the agency set about to create a simple and distinctive identity.
"The W proudly rising from the harbour has a confidence, modernity and refreshing quality to it. Not only does it look great across the range of cans, the ‘White Bay W’ allows us to always playfully put the brand at the heart of our comms. Over time we hope it can become quite iconic," he said.
Richards Rose CEO Digby Richards said the first step was to get the team's heads out of craft beer.
"While we have a huge amount of respect for the craft of beer making, we didn’t think the marketplace needed another version of the same," he said.
"Instead, we looked at the entire category and challenged ourselves to stand apart from that world. We also needed one hero beer to back in, a new beer that would be at home anywhere."
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