Boundary Road Brewery (BRB) produces a range of craft beers designed to appeal to the growing number of consumers moving away from mainstream beers. Consumers who appreciate new flavours and brewing styles and are very particular about their beers.

With no credentials, no history, little money, and when the campaign started not even any beer, the task was to launch a new craft beer range into a diverse and fragmented category with notoriously discerning consumers. The agency was tasked with making a significant impact in the craft beer market, defined as ‘5% share within 12 months’.

Observing the habits of wine buyers revealed that when faced with an overwhelming choice, they would tend towards a brand with which they had some sort of personal connection, however small. For example: they had visited the winery or had met the winemaker personally; the bottle had a dog on the label and they like dogs, etc.

To make that personal connection between BRB and craft beer consumers, they were invited to participate in decisions around the actual beers they could buy. Open discussion through Facebook and edm’s about beer matters maintained conversation and engagement so that, when faced with a wall of choice in the bottle shop or supermarket, there was a familiar friendly face with which they had a connection. Digital was at the core of this strategy. Everything was designed to drive consumers online and to keep them involved.

With the aim for the brand being to breaking even and a target to get 5% of the NZ Craft beer market in Year 1, the longer-term objective was to build a brand which provided brewing credentials for the rest of BRB’s beer offering.

Six months after launch the BRB Craft Range had achieved:

• The single best selling craft beer SKU in NZ supermarkets, breaking through the clutter of 400 beer SKUs to create Independent Liquor’s most successful beer launch ever
• The position of number two in the market from nowhere – and believed to be the first time that a beer brand had ever been successfully launched with digital at the core
• Sales three times over forecast – their Pilsner variant (Bouncing Czech) became in June the biggest selling SKU in the whole craft grocery sector