Very enjoyable innovation
After being acquired by Asahi, craft beer pioneers Mountain Goat Beer wanted to develop a lager. This lager had the opportunity to appeal to people whose appetites straddled across mainstream and craft beer brands. As Mountain Goat’s trusted creative partner, we worked with them on strategy, brand identity, packaging, communications and social media to help innovate and create a brand that opened up a whole new world for beer in Australia.
Client
Mountain Goat Beer
Services
Brand Strategy
Brand Identity
Brand Guidelines
Brand Communication
Art Direction
Packaging
Here’s the story
Beer is an over-saturated market. In Australia, there are over 700 craft beer breweries. People are spoilt for choice and it’s quite confusing when you stand at the fridge trying to decide what to buy. Wanting to simplify the process and seem different, Mountain Goat Beer saw the opportunity to develop an uncomplicated Australian lager that appealed to this growing craft beer demographic.
The mission
We worked towards a strategy to position Goat in the sweet spot of beer. To do that we had to understand the cultural demographics and behaviours of the mainstream and craft beer market. With the proposition of smashable simplicity as our launchpad, we got to work on ways to bring our insights to life.
The design
Heavily influenced by the simplistic brand direction, the packaging is a striking clash of colour and angles, which appealed strongly to our audience. The inclusion of the goat head is an important one as a memorable mnemonic; it connects the can to the craft credentials of Mountain Goat. We added fine lines as a nod to traditional beer cues to elevate its appearance and help balance the relationship between mainstream and craft. The logo is a modified version of Berliner Grotesk, a traditional beer font that the Mountain Goat Beer brand also shares.
The tagline
In a sea of sameness, we needed a verbal identity that truly spoke to Goat’s uncomplicated positioning and was at odds with the usual product descriptions you find on beer packaging. By understanding GOAT’s market and their basic heuristics we distilled that knowledge about people and product into “Very enjoyable beer”. The tagline described it and created a whole new category. No longer was it just another blurb about mainstream or craft lager - it described what it was like to drink.
The communication
We worked with The Monkeys on art direction for their 13Goat launch promo. A series of outdoor posters directing people to call 13GOAT an immersive, branded experience. Every choice leads them deeper into a series of intertwining stories, characters and a tonne of goat-related sound effects, and all for their chance to win a year's supply of new GOAT beer.
It’s important for us to acknowledge and recognise that where we live, work and play is on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We respect and honour Elders, past, present and future, and acknowledge their Native Title rights to Country, which holds the stories, traditions and living culture of Wurundjeri people.
