VOODOO RANGER
Building a brand on social from bare bones.
Voodoo Ranger is a portfolio of IPAs from New Belgium Brewery. But with craft beer down 12% YOY and an over-saturated marketplace, how can you stand out from the crowd? By not making it about the beer, but building a character around it.
The Craft beer category looks a lot like this. Ugh.
Bearded beer-snobs in flannels talking about beer gravity, bacteria cultures and wheat strains. They’re pretty much sniffing their own hops.
So, we didn’t do that.
Instead, we leveraged the label art, and brought Voodoo Ranger to life with a unique point of view and own-able voice.
THE IDEA:
LIVE RANGEROUSLY
The strategy was to bring levity to craft beer. While everyone else is taking craft beer way too seriously, we reminded people that drinking beer is fun. Through sarcasm, quick wit, and entertainment, we connected with craft beer consumers in a way no one has before.
Taking inspiration from the can art, we created a visual language for the brand unlike any of the competition.
Then, we developed the brand voice; Turning Voodoo Ranger into the most sarcastic and self-aware spokesperson craft beer has ever seen.
TELEVISION
When you’re a brand who pokes fun of everything including itself, what do you do when you get your first TV commercial? You poke fun at TV commercials.
Every 4 months Voodoo Ranger releases a limited-time rotator beer. Every 4 months we created a custom micro-campaign supporting each one, including a unique look and message, delivered through organic social, paid media, and even real world activations.
1985 delilvered
We gave people a chance to mentally leave 2020 by launching an LTO 80s themed beer then delivering it in the most 80s way possible—by a fleet of time machines.
A limited time product immortalized forever on the flesh of its fans.
Voodoo Ranger literally branded their fans in honor of a limited edition beer, Juicifer IPA. Partnering with a tattoo shop (appropriately named Little Black Church) to reinterpret the brand’s skeleton mascot, the four Juicifer-inspired tattoos were revealed in an Instagram video series named “Skin & Bones,” that promoted a contest for fans to win the permanent art. Over 600 people signed up to get the tattoos, and four “lucky” winners traveled from all over the US to New Belgium’s satellite taproom, to bid their naked flesh goodbye one final time. A temporary IPA worthy of permanence? Apparently so.
TURNING CONSUMERS INTO ADVOCATES
As part of our organic social content, we’d often design parody product posts featuring Voodoo Ranger. But the demand for our joke-gear was so high we created an online store for the brand. Introducing The Vootique, and online store of limited edition products, so you can have your Voodoo Ranger in a can, on a lunchbox or in Action Figure form.
