Coopers rebrands its ‘Session Ale’ to ‘Pacific Pale Ale’ with packaging and campaign via TABOO
Australia’s largest independent brewer, Coopers, has re-branded its blue roundel with new packaging and an integrated campaign by TABOO.
The rebranding aims to capture the lifestyle of the Australian Pacific Coast and harness the latent equity that Coopers has within surf and coastal communities.
Taboo underpinned the new campaign with the ‘Best After…’ creative platform that uses a flexible messaging construct, positioning Coopers as the perfect beer after a big day on the coast, calling last wave, watching the weekend roll in and pretty much anything. It’s also a nod to the unique ‘best after’ date on the beer, due to Coopers’ can fermentation process.
The campaign is produced by surf authority STAB and was shot on an epic Aussie road trip with some the coast’s most influential surfers, shapers and filmmakers including Creed McTaggart, Laurie Towner, Ryan Callinan, Neil Purchase Junior and Toby Cregan.
The campaign includes OOH, transit, digital pre-roll as well as a STAB media partnership from which two longer format films were created, receiving widespread acclaim in the global surf community: Highway Blues and Spring Blues. The videos have accrued over 100,000 organic views within the first week of release.
Says James Mackinnon, partner, Taboo: “While Coopers wasn’t born on the coast, over the last 158 years its iconic roundel has been part of the furniture in all decent surf coast pubs and over time has become engrained in this culture. We wanted this new packaging and the campaign to reflect the history of the Coopers brand as well as the raw beauty of Australia’s Pacific Coast.”
Of the rebrand, Coopers director of marketing and innovation Cam Pearce says: “We launched Session Ale in late 2017 and it quickly established itself as a popular drink among craft beer enthusiasts. Since then the perception of the overall Session Ale category has evolved to now be more reflective of a mid-strength beer while Pacific has become identifiable with a style reflecting refreshment, flavour and fruitiness. So, to better align with its category and reflect its refreshing, tropical flavour profile, we’ve changed the name to Pacific Pale Ale.”
The rebranding marks a notable shift for the Coopers brand and aims to reflect its evolution while still celebrating the heritage that Coopers is built upon.
Brand: Coopers Brewery
Director of Marketing and Innovation: Cam Pearce
National Marketing Manager: Kate Dowd
Creative Agency: TABOO
Director/Strategy Director: James Mackinnon
Executive Creative Director: Nick Jamieson
Creative Director: Matt Heays
Creative: Dane Falkström
Senior Producer: Sim Greentree
Senior Strategist: Tatum Ambler
Group Account Director: Kate Prowse
Account Director: Celia McCarthy
Account Manager: Lily Anderson
Production: STAB
19 Comments
watch out monster children. stab have started making entitled white northern beaches cheap effect content too. you had me with the opening line that went nowhere fast. the death of craft is upon us
soooooooo inner north side of melbourne
Not really. Too mainstream (both the brand and the beer style). Too Sydney.
“Session Ale” was the best name in beer. Shame.
Agree
sounds like every other fkn beeer out in market
Bored af by 1 minute
It’s bonza
That drop shadow is a crime. So badly Art directed.
Let’s ‘rebrand’ an Adelaide beer to Byron Bay, tell a bullshit upper middle class white lefty story and try compete with those who ran this narrative over 5 years ago. A little truth would’ve been aight… Lazy craft and a shit move by a brand with a solid unique selling point like Coopers.
Aren’t KWP Coopers agency?
What country is that billboard in?
malaysia
Malaysia must be a big export market for Coopers. https://www.adeevee.com/aimages/201003/15/mini-car-loose-billboard-outdoor-129292-adeevee.jpg
Best left hander inAustralia in SA. Not in the pacific, but did we need another Byron Beer…
For my goofy friends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTUORFu26zQ
It looks like the people who it’s designed for really like it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keA-EbM9H3c
Put some Ice in the esky…. Jeez
The new branding was completely unnecessary and looks like a five year old did it.
Is this re-branding the marketing bullshit artists’ idea to position this product amongst the 1001 anonymous craft beers out there?
Wake up, coopers is an Adelaide brewer and ought to be proud of it.
The Session Ale can hold its own in the market in its own right without the advertising agency crap re-branding.
The marketers have made yet another mistake,
Coopers, you had it right the first time with Session Ale.
No need to pander to an east coast market already saturated with so-called summer beers,
It’s not a Pacific Ale at all.
The stuff is brewed in Adelaide, a place with a Mediterranean climate 1,000 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
Coopers doesn’t need to go in for this phoney marketing rubbish.
People who buy Cooper’s products know where it comes from and like the stuff for what it is, not for what some 12 year old marketing schmuck thinks people want.
Hell, the 12 year olds even messed up the new packaging! If you wanted tobury that beer amongst the 1,001 other wannabe summer ales, that’s the packaging you’d use.