Addressing the
elephant in the room – India is a dark market where alcohol brands have had to
hide behind surrogates such as music, waters, and sodas for years in order to
reach out to the audience. However, the tide is slowly changing.
Gone are the days
where alcohol is associated with dingy-looking liquor stores adorned by dusty
bottles or with men in ganjees seeking desi daaru and sale through store shutter
windows late into the nights.
Today, as the taboo
around alcohol starts to wear off, in new-age urban India the alcohol
industry is also starting to shift dramatically at a fast pace. Drinking
culture is becoming normalised and in fact flourishing; giving rise to brands
innovating, finding newer ways to market themselves and actively engaging with
their audiences.
Vyas
Giannetti Creative is an advertising agency in India. Over the years, we
have worked with a number of brands in this industry, to help them address
various problems their brands have faced. From repositioning and branding exercises
to marketing and communication, being one of the top advertising agencies in Mumbai, Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC) has
been able to help these brands across the board.
There are a number of
emerging trends in design and communication for the alcobev industry and we’d
like to demonstrate some of these through two of our projects -
1. Foster’s, one of
the world’s leading beer brands, had trouble connecting with their audience
when they launched in India. VGC helped position them for the local context and
rolled out a holistic communication strategy, right from brand activation to
product advertisements and much more.
2. TJ’s BrewWorks is a
brand with a national ambition that opened its first microbrewery in Pune. With
microbreweries being a relatively new concept in India, we needed to find a way
to educate the audience about the concept of homebrewed beers to differentiate
it from the standard beer. To do so, we strategically branded the company, created
an environment and various elements within it that showcased the different
types of beer on offer, developed communication and a whole lot more.
Now, let’s take a look at some of these trends we spoke about earlier.
The Chillheads - depicting different ways to chill
Innovative Packaging:
When it comes to beer, most beer drinkers prefer a nice, cold one. Warm beer is despised by beer aficionados, the world over. But, how does one tell if your beer is cold enough to drink. 10 minutes in the refrigerator? 20 perhaps? There’s isn’t really a science or guide to getting this bit right.
When Warm
To fix this, VGC had designed thermo-sensitive packaging a beer brand. The packaging would reveal a hidden element (like a mountain or the degree symbol, as depicted in the visual) when at or under the preferred temperature for consumption (anywhere between 4 to 7 degrees Celsius for a typical lager) and this element would disappear, when it was warm. This way, even before picking up a bottle or pulling it out of your fridge, you’d know that your beer was cold and ready to consume.
When Cold
Immersive Experiences:
Today’s consumer
prefers experiences over products (oh, that typical millennial mindset!). They
are interested in engaging with their environment rather than just sitting
around and having a drink. They like to get into the thick of things. So, when
we set out to design the brewery, we wanted to create an experience that was
definitely out of the ordinary, by making the whole place conversational and
engaging the audience across all touch points.
Beer Mood Swatch
Revolving Beer Menu –
For those that can’t make up their mind
Conversational Table Mats
Our intent was to
establish the brewery as a place that not only brewed beer but also brewed conversations,
art, music, news and much more. So, from interactive table mats and coasters,
where consumers could fill in answers to certain questions and win a ‘six-pack’
to a blackboard where people could draw or write about what was brewing in
their lives, the whole space was designed to interact with the consumer. We
even created a beer mood swatch so that consumers could pick a beer based on
their mood. Even the menu was playful and interactive. All of this really
helped bring alive the place and made it the preferred destination to get a
brew.
The beer lounge model
at an airport
The beer lounge
adapted for a pub
We were also tasked
with creating immersive beer lounges, which were aligned with the parent
brand’s positioning; these would offer a customer maximum control over the
brand experience while delighting their five senses and also help in driving
in traffic. The beer lounges were designed to have chill pits, a bar area and a
lounge area for people to relax and move around in. Created for people to
actually chill in while getting some of their favourite beer, this model could
also be replicated in public spaces and pubs all across the country, from
airports to malls and more.
Engaging the audience:
As the mindset of the
audience shifts and brands become more inclusive towards them (especially
women, who make up a large share of their customer base), it is becoming increasingly
important for alcohol brands to actively engage with their diverse target group
across various touch points.
A universally simple
way to do this is to use elements of humour in your communication. This can be
across mainline communication, or in our (India’s case) across customer experience
points.
Fun ‘O Clocks
Standees, Banners and
Collaterals to bring alive the brand’s positioning
Funny quips under
bottle caps
Cheeky lines, punchy
captions and engaging visuals are the norm. It helps make the brand more
relatable and inclusive. Also, adding an element of fun, helps the brand stay
buzzy and entertaining for the end consumer. From pubs to breweries and from
experience design to ATL (restricted) communication we have used elements of
fun across various places, to playfully engage & captivate our audience.
Compelling Associations:
Earlier, alcohol
brands used to settle for being passive sponsors with their logos strewn all
over a baseball field or cricket stadium. Today, a lot of brands are developing
properties of their own, engaging with new audiences and chartering new paths
for customer engagement. Associating alcohol with music however, is a
no-brainer.
Invites and Communication for the stand-up event with Vir Das
Coasters with different messages that you could share with a friend or pass to a stranger to begin a conversation with
For one of our
clients, we helped curate and create a unique (at the time) platform to
associate the brand with – stand-up comedy. Back when stand-up comedy was at
its nascent stage in India, we celebrated comedy through LOL evenings – a
series of shows anchored by Vir Das, in pubs and bars across the country. This
helped us establish the brand as an innovator that was doing something
different.
Bringing the brand alive online:
The internet and
social media are the perfect place to bring your brand alive. Especially in
India, where brands are restricted in terms of mainline communication, the online
channels have fewer restrictions, allowing brands to engage directly with their
audiences.
Giving people the opportunity to share a talk about their favourite brew
A whole lot of merchandise and gear that could be won or purchased
The Result – A huge
number of fans in an extremely short span of time.
For clients in the
restricted space, the key is to make the communication engaging, impactful and
fun. In fact, we did this at a time where social media marketing was still
relatively new to India. From gifting & promoting merchandise to badges,
exclusive content, contests and other engagements, the campaigns we created and
executed, helped boost engagement and awareness of these brands.
As audiences become
younger and as the media by which we engage with them becomes even more
diverse, it is important for brands in the alcobev industry to find newer,
innovative ways to engage with them, is our belief as an advertising agency in India.
From using
cutting-edge technology, to crafting immersive experiences and engaging with
talented creative agencies, brands are doing everything they can to stay ahead
of the competition.
So, how can you
increase your brand’s edge?
Well, watch this space or log on to our website – www.vgc.in for help with your brand or to just watch out for more emerging trends and techniques to tackle the ever-evolving alcohol market. We are one of the top advertising agencies in Mumbai.
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Article as featured in Ambrosia India (The Magazine for the Alcobev Industry)
Article as featured in Ambrosia India (The Magazine for the Alcobev Industry)
