Great Northern Brewing Co. – Packaging Design
**Branding the Beer for Up Here Challenge**
CUB faced a decline in market share due to the popularity of competitor XXXX Summer, which attracted a new mixed-gender demographic favoring lighter beers over CUB's traditional offerings. Marketed as a low-carb, full-strength, and refreshing alternative with a "Bring On Summer" advertising campaign, XXXX Summer prompted CUB to seek a new brand that could resonate with the Australian summer spirit and cater to emerging buying trends.
**Solution**
Fluid developed a series of new beer brands centered around lifestyle activities such as surfing, fishing, and camping. These brands were chosen from CUB's current offerings through qualitative research, particularly appealing to the Queensland market due to its warm weather. The selected brand was Great Northern Brewing Co, a brewery established in the 1920s in Cairns.
**Outcome**
The brand launched in Queensland pubs and clubs and, after gaining popularity, introduced a mid-strength variant. It became firmly established in Queensland, backed by the 'the Beer from Up Here' campaign crafted by George Patterson YNR. By 2015, the beer expanded nationally, achieving 10% of the total beer volume sold in Queensland and 23% nationally by 2018. Great Northern won the New Product of the Year Award at the 2015 Australian Liquor Industry Awards and received the Best Sales Achievement title at the 2017 Australian Drinks Awards. Since becoming national in 2015, the brand has sold 10 million liters.
**Deliverables**
New Product Development, Identity, Packaging, Point of Sale.