A recent acquisition for CUB, 4 Pines needed to find its place within their portfolio with hectolitres sales having it balanced between a mass and craft brand. With inconsistent messaging over the last 5 years, 4 Pines needed to stand for something. CUB identified that something as 'the sustainable' beer - this case speaks to the strategy we used to bring it to life while still keeping us 'beer'.
By 2023, CUB had made a slew of craft acquisitions in the past 8 years including Mountain Goat, Pirate Life, Balter, Green Beacon and, of course, 4 Pines. All adding to their current stable from their other craft brewery, Matilda Bay. CUB needed to start clearly differentiating its portfolio and give each brand its own reason for being. Especially 4 Pines as it was a volume driver and, like Balter, it was quickly moving into a more mass hectolitre sales volume.
Given 4 Pines history as a business, being B Corp certified, donating 1% of profits to the planet along with a host of other philanthropic initiatives, CUB wanted 4 Pines to be the brand that stood for sustainability within their portfolio. Hell, it had 4 trees in their logo after all. Not only did it make sense because it was in 4 Pines DNA, but as all of CUB was becoming more sustainable, it could be the brand to learn from. Especially in a world where greenwashing gets called out, this was the brand that could pass muster.
The challenge was how to keep it 'beer' and appeal to the masses. After all, we weren't an activist brand, just one that believed that doing business could be done to help benefit the planet. Our target was 'people that care', not 'people that protest'. Our brand personality would remain the same regardless of our positioning: fun, fresh, unpretentious, welcoming and sociable.
Oh, and did I mention we were on a budget? Like a very, very, very, very, very tight budget. Very.
Our first step was to introduce ourselves to the consumer and go on some shopper journey's with them.There were no real surprises with beer being more of an active brand choice than wine, for example. But there was a buying insight that was uncovered which led to an innovative solution that we'll touch on later.
Our brand deep dive included visiting 4 Pines venues and getting to the heart of the founders story and how the business was operated. Not dissimilar to Patagonia, it was truly a business set up to try and do good from its inception.
From a culture and category perspective, there were a few headwinds:
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4 Pines wasn't the only B Corp certified brewery in Australia with more in the pipeline
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Brewers like Capital Brewing (also a B Corp) were already playing in the space with 'good natured brews'
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Mass brands like VB and their 'solar beer' where playing in the space tactically, but at scale
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And there were plenty of other brands who had positive initiatives like 'buy a beer, plant a tree' - tree planting being something 4 Pines was obviously already at the forefront of
Strategically we needed to stand out. Our 'a-ha' came in the inherent tension that existed between the brand who does 'good' because it wants to and the consumer who wants to do good, but with minimal effort.
Our campaign idea was born: you drink the beer, we'll do the good stuff. By simply drinking 4 Pines you are helping make a better world, because we’re doing all the good stuff for you. Planting more trees. Brewing on 100% Renewable energy. Cutting out all fossil fuels by 2026.
And given our limited budgets, we approached the brief backwards to typical agencies and started with owned assets as our first media channel to bring this new positioning to life.
Packaging:
One of the buyer insights uncovered in our shopper journeys, was that when you walk into a liquor store cold room for a case purchase, branding is left to the side panel leaving the top panel to be used as a communications channel rather than a repeat of the logo. And when you are waiting in line at the counter or placing the case down at a BBQ, it becomes the perfect vehicle to tell your brand story. The packaging was also given an design update consistent with the rest of the campaign.
In Venue:
A host of in venue materials were created to bring our brand story to life.
Website & Reports
OOH
Film
A great way to keep what could have felt pretentious, very 'beer'. And apart from the single lead talent, all cast are 4 Pines employees.
The campaign launched February 2024 and I'm excited to see the results.