Helping Beam Suntory develop a new communications platform for Canadian Club & Dry

Comms Development leads to effie award campaign

Beam Suntory wanted to develop a new communications platform for Canadian Club & Dry. Instead of positioning the brand against other RTDs the aim was to take share from beer which could provide a far larger source of volume.

Focus groups presented a lot of potential for workshopping possible creative routes with participants. We carefully chose people who were beer drinkers yet at the same time non-rejecters of Canadian Club. We discovered what our participants had in common: despite the fact that they thought of themselves as beer drinkers, there were times when people just didn’t fancy a beer.

Armed with this insight, we explored various creative routes developed by The Works Sydney. The 'Over Beer' route resonated strongly and a famous campaign was born. The brand has cemented the 'Over Beer' positioning in the eight years since then. There have been several additional variations of the campaign, three of which we researched and helped optimise. The campaign has won two Effie awards in Australia and the brand has enjoyed continuous growth in a declining sector.