Big in Japan
SingleCut Beersmiths
Issue 54 | March 2020
Agency
Zulu Alpha Kilo
Creative Team
Creative Director Zak Mroueh Design Director Ryan Booth Art Director Kevin Sato Writer Vinay Parmar
Production Team
Creative Tech Director Martin Szomolanyi Agency Producers Houng Ngui, Teresa Bayley Studio Director Greg Heptinstall Illustrators Ty Dale, Kevin Sato Production Artist Anna Harju, Brandon Dyson, Ashleigh O’Brien
Other Credits
Account Supervisor Erin McManus Strategists Spencer MacEachern, Stephanie Gyles Client SingleCut founder Rich Buceta
Date
May 2019
Background
SingleCut Beersmiths was a New York City craft brewery with fans in beer-loving cities around the world. When SingleCut’s new IPA was launched in Japan, the question wasn’t whether music would be involved but how it would be used.
In addition to an idea that brought together music, beer and Japanese culture, the challenge was to make the new IPA a sellout.
Idea
The music scene in Japan was known for a unique phenomenon: rock bands from North America and Europe became big in Asia before they became popular in their own countries. Bands like Queen and The Runaways became big in Japan long before North Americans even knew their name.
That insight led to naming the new IPA ‘Big in Japan’.
Another cultural phenomenon in Japan was the role QR codes play in everyday life as a way to obtain information, order products and interact with brands.
Big in Japan was launched by completely transforming QR codes from the usual dull, black squares to colourful, storytelling graphics, which demonstrated the brand’s connection to music in an unexpected and gamified way.
Four distinct QR codes were created as the central imagery of the packaging. Each code was a graphic representation of a classic rock song, that presented drinkers with a musical puzzle to solve. People could try to solve it on their own or find the answers by scanning the QR code. If they scanned, they were taken to a specially crafted Spotify playlist that solved the puzzle by playing the song and revealed the new IPA they were drinking.
Point-of-sale posters featured a fifth QR code that presented the story of SingleCut and Big in Japan IPA.
Big in Japan was also available in bars in and around Toronto.
Results
The promoted social media assets garnered the highest level of consumer engagement to date for the brand, resulting in four times the usual response level.
The playlists on Spotify received over 5,000 unique visits. This was more than three times the visits SingleCut’s website typically received in the same time frame.
The beer sold out within two weeks of release.
Our Thoughts
Music really is at the heart of the SingleCut brand. Founder Rich Buceta sold his collection of vintage guitars in order to quit marketing and set up his brewery.
As a marketer he would have understood the importance of packaging but in the old days of demarcation between ‘above’ and ‘below’ the line agencies, the ad guys would have been dismissive of pack design.
But the pack, the box, the wrapper, the can is free media which the brand owns.
Great to see the agency bringing all its craft skills to the party with these beautiful and engrossing QR codes which bring drinkers classic rock songs.