Even cooler than Madvillianny

Do you remember when Madlib and MF DOOM collaborated and put out that crazy album? Yeah, me too. Everyone was a little shocked, like, "It happened. They really did it." I think it was a solid year before it left my heavy rotation.

I've commented on collaborations a bunch here recently. I'm usually kind of skeptical where the value add is. Sometimes the result is cool. Sometimes it's just really exciting and you can't wait to taste/listen to it. That's the case with this Sierra Nevada X Anchor Steam collaboration. These are my two favorite brands that have national distribution and I'm pretty excited about this (though I highly doubt this will be available in beer backwater Washington D.C.)

It appears that we are celebrating Sierra Nevada's 30th anniversary with Fritz and Ken's Ale which, I'm told, is a stout. An interesting choice as neither brewery is particularly known for stouts but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Cheers.

vis Cool Hunting 

I Love Guinness But...

Only for the bold?

Listen, I love Guinness.  It's light and creamy with a slightly roasted malt flavor. Yes it is a dark colored beer and it is a stout but let's get something straight once and for all- it's not a big beer. It's low in alcohol content and gravity. Have you ever seen someone pour a black and tan? The Guinness floats on top of a flipping lager! It can do this because it has lower sugar content than a Harp (alcohol is made from the sugar.) We can all appreciate Guinness for what it is but let's not pretend it's a tough guy beer with tons of flavor that packs some secret Irish punch.

 Photo via Brandweek

That's why is drives me a crazy when Americans are always saying things like, "I'm a beer snob. I know all about beer. I only drink dark strong beers like Guinness." Awesome, you have given me all I need to know. Now please leave me alone, I'm trying to enjoy my Makers rocks in peace.

Anyways, Guinness doesn't seem to care if consumers are misguided. It's more than happy to play up the big macho image. It was running some ads encouraging people to be bold and drink Guinness. Most recently it's taken it a step further and been running ads during college football games about how Guinness isn't for people that punt on forth and one. ONLY FOR THE BOLD is the final tagline. I like to roll my eyes when that comes on. I wanted to throw the video up but I think even Guinness is kind of embarrassed by this stateside approach and won't upload it.

Anyhoo, my rant is over. I hope you all have a pleasant day.

Kaws X Dos Equis

Dos Equis teamed up with graffiti artist gone super famous Kaws for special beer bottle. There is bad news and good news. The bad news is that it's only slated for a Mexican release. The good news is that they made a video.

Peroni's "Timeless" Look

While other lager brands were busy trying to find ways to create impressions at the World Cup or develop a new gimmick flavor for football season, Peroni was taking the high road. The company enlisted Gabriele Muccino to make this 5 minute video about love and product placement. The short is set in Rome and really succeeds in creating a timeless feel and not beating you over the head with the Peroni brand.

Molson Coors dropping a clear beer

Brandrepublic is reporting that Molson Coors is gearing up to launch a clear beer that will be low in calories and come exclusively in bottles. This comes after extensive market research regarding women's attitudes towards beer and a general interest in achieving higher levels of penetration with the female market. The company tried out a product last year that had green tea and dragon fruit flavoring. Thankfully, this product will taste more like normal beer. If you have a good idea for a name, get at them as they don't have anything nailed down yet.

Heineken's champions league stunt

We've picked on Heineken on this blog before. I stand by my earlier assertion that it's not a great beer but has a good brand in the states. They do, however, pull some cool marketing stunts having to do with soccer in Europe. I remember hearing about them handing out big Heineken hats outside of a Eurocup match that was sponsored by Carlsberg in 2008. Well they pulled something pretty cool for a AC Milan vs. Real Madric match. Not too much commentary except that I kind of question how real this is. If they tried this in states with a Husker game, my family wouldn't have begun to consider going some classical music mixed with poetry.

"This beer tastes good enough but the packaging is so great" -steve kream

I saw an ad tonight for Sam Adams on MSNBC right before the women’s hockey final. It was basically 30 seconds of folks from the company telling us that we are mistaken when we think they are a big company. They are actually really small. In fact, they are less than 1% of the U.S. beer market.

How big is that beer market again? According to IBIS World Americans spent just over 26 billion dollars on beer in 2009. So they are telling us that their gross revenue is somewhere south of like 260 million dollars? I still want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to post the ad up so I went online and spent some time on the Sam Adams site and then youtube. I came across all kinds of nicely produced ads but I couldn’t find this one. Whatever the actual revenue is, if you have this many nicely produced ads and nice media placement, you aren’t that small. I don’t think anyone is really fooled by Sam Adams so I won’t belabor the point but it does broach the subject of how success is tough on a beer brand.

Success for a small brewery can be a double edged sword. It brings the sales that the company deserves but it threatens to isolate the company from its core demographic that appreciates a smaller brand and helped them through the fledgling start-up phase. This is especially tough in the alcohol market. A lot of consumers are willing to wear Levis but won’t be see with a Budweiser.

This is true of spirits as well. New Deal Vodka, a small distillery in Portland, Oregon, has a particularly novel approach the success “problem.” New Deal Vodka’s packaging and marketing really focuses on the local angle. The company sources locally and has organic vodkas as part of its product portfolio. So after all this stress on the craft element New Deal writes on the back of the label “Of course, eventually, we plan to rule the world.” Seriously, just tell people that someday you hope to expand and do well. I think it’s crucial to be honest with folks and let know your intentions and who you are. You really can’t fake the funk.

Quilmes Beer Brands

Ads of the world recently posted a great ad made by Saatchi and Saatchi for the Argentine beer brand Andes. It features a new invention call the Telestransporter which is a soundproof booth placed inside of bars so you can talk with your girlfriend/wife on the phone without her know you’re at the bar. They actually mocked them up and put them in bars in Medoza. At the end you get to see guys making excuses to their girls on the phone with fake background noise for extra effect. It’s a great ad so please check it out.

Quilmes is Andes parent brand and has a great approach to managing the demographic diversity that results from the disparate nature of its main geographic markets. The company has three different brands for three different regions of the country but it packages the same beer under these brands (at least I can’t tell the difference and I’ve drunk a lot of each brand.)



•Quilmes- This is sold in and around Buenos Aires. Quilmes is a small city outside of B.A. and is the traditional home to the brewery. It’s bottled with a blue and white label and is typically the brand that is exported to the states. It is the Argentine national beer and riles up the patriotism amongst porteňos.



•Andes- This is sold around the Andean region of Argentina. You’ll find it in Mendoza as well as more southern places like Bariloche and Ushuaia. People in these places really identify much stronger with their mountainous geography than they do with an old brewery outside of B.A. Stepping into Bariloche is a lot like stepping into a Swiss ski village. They even pride themselves on the local chocolate and you can have your photo taken with Saint Bernards with the barrel under their necks. Note the mountains on the label. This is a beer for mountain people and for city people that are on vacation to the mountains.




•Norte- Rolling up into northern Argentina the terrain becomes much more arid. The main city up there is called La Salta and it has a pretty detached and isolated feel to it. Neither the mountainous snowcaps nor the urban porteňo product will fly here. But they are proud of who they are and a beer named for them hits the spot. Still tastes the same though.

By the way, don’t ever tell anyone in La Salta that their beer tastes just like the Quilmes that River Plate fans drink down south.