How STUDIOS, Our In-House Creative Agency, Helped Go Brewing Gain Momentum
July 30, 2024
What goes into the design of a great out of home campaign?
As Chicagoland-based Go Brewing ramped up production of its non-alcoholic beers last year, the brand wanted to make a splash. But it hit bottlenecks when attempting to break through on TV and radio. So, Go turned to OUTFRONT – and STUDIOS, our in-house creative agency.
Comprised of more than 50 talented artists and designers across the country, STUDIOS offers its services as a value-add for our clients’ campaigns. Advertisers don’t pay a penny extra for the experience, perspective, and best practices we bring to the table. And it all starts with a thoughtful discovery conversation.
“We explain our process to them, building that relationship so they trust us,” said Senior Art Director Sandra Spahic. “We explain how to highlight the tone, get that across to the audience, why certain things aren’t going to work for out of home.”
“It’s all about effectiveness because it’s all we do,” said Art Director Jake Beaven-Parshall. “We know what works color-wise, stand out-wise, copy-wise. We had conversations about limiting the copy to make this as bold, simple, and effective as possible.”
With Go Brewing, our discovery process taught us that the brewer was carving out a niche, offering beer drinkers styles not often found in non-alcoholic varieties – think IPAs, pilsners, sours, and pale ales. We saw that Forbes called them “the next big thing” in non-alcoholic beer, part of a category that grew 5% to $13 billion last year. We learned that its Suspended in a Sunbeam Pils, which took the gold as the best non-alcoholic beer in the hop-forward category at last year's Best of Craft Beer Awards, was actually inspired by astronomer Carl Sagan! And it was impossible to miss the brewery's momentum: Go sold more beer in January 2024 than in the last six months of 2023, while expanding across four states – Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin – with plans to be in twice as many by year’s end.
Founder Joe Chura told us about the personal journey that led him to start the business, which unlike many traditional breweries extending their brands, non-alcoholic beer is its sole focus. The brewery shared with us zero-party data revealing that along with a health/wellness/active lifestyle audience, music lovers are at the core of its customer base. In fact, Go will be sponsoring Riot Fest this September as its official non-alcoholic beer. We took in the distinctive, edgy, Liquid Death-esque visual tone of the brand (as communicated on its cans) and may have even sampled the product. And with that, STUDIOS got to work!
“There were six or seven of us,” recalled Jake. “The team got a conference room and wound up running out of paper because we were writing down every idea. Wrote everything down and from that it spurred other ideas. We divided and conquered to balance the different ideas the client was toying with.”
“We wanted to blow it out of the water and excite them, so we all pitched very different ideas,” he continued.
In the end, the brand selected Jake’s extension-accentuated bulletin billboard design and Sandra’s vision for a two-face wallscape, which the two then integrated into a single, cohesive campaign across Chicago and Columbus.
“We decided to highlight the beer cans. Brands like this with an established tone and look, it was pretty effortless and we had a lot of fun with it,” explained Sandra. “If you look close, there’s bubbles. You’re flowing into the brand, the vibe of it.”
How much did Go Brewing like the work STUDIOS did on the campaign? The client ended up buying the art files to use across social media and the rest of its marketing channels.
The creatives at STUDIOS are passionate about bringing brands to life on our assets, and they’re eager to do the same for yours. Contact us now to learn more!
Author: Jay Fenster, Marketing Manager @ OUTFRONT
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