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The launch of Muskoka Brewery’s new beer, Detour IPA, required the craft brand to expand beyond its local market.
Our newsmaking campaign helped target new markets and consumers by combining the best of traditional, digital, and experiential tactics.
Background
Our multi-faceted strategy leveraged Muskoka’s status as one of Canada’s original craft beer innovators, and capitalized on the craze for new and original beer taste sensations. Our year-long campaign introduced new audiences to the world of craft beer, grew trial and sales of Muskoka brands.
The Challenge
Position Muskoka as a Trendy, Go-to Beer Brand
- Introduce Muskoka as a beer pioneer, elevating the brand beyond everyday brews
- Attract new audiences, particularly women, and brings new beer drinkers into the craft beer fold
- Position the brand as unique, innovative, yet approachable, not just for seasoned beer drinkers
- Support Muskoka’s efforts to grow its presence and sales outside of Ontario
- Launch new flagship beer, Detour IPA
The Solution
Seek Out and Target New Beer Drinkers
Leveraging Celebrity Chefs
To elevate craft beer and set Muskoka above the ordinary, top Canadian PR Agency, Strategic Objectives, engaged Ontario’s finest celebrity chefs to create tap-to-table tasting menus inspired by Muskoka’s beer varieties. These chefs hosted exclusive media tasting events in key media markets focused on food pairings with craft beer.
Engaging The Media
We created a media kit including craft beer tasting and food pairing notes for trend, food and lifestyle reporters outlining the differences between craft and mass produced beer. We personally delivered it along with Muskoka’s new product, Detour IPA.
We also launched Muskoka for the first time, in British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia with a head brewer media tour, influencer partnerships and consumer beer tastings at various popular beer festivals.
Finding Our Audience on Social
We conducted Twitter training for executives, and created a hyper-targeted Facebook pay-per-click ad campaign to launch the brand in the Maritimes, Alberta and British Columbia.
The Result
60M
traditional media impressions
50 MINS
of broadcast time
313K
Unique Individual engagements
- Muskoka Detour was the most successful new product launch in the company’s history
- Detour was named craft beer of the year by the LCBO’s Food and Drink Magazine
- 34 media outlets attended and reported on Tap-to-Table events
- Facebook ad campaign secured a 24.2% click-through rate far surpassing the industry standard
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