Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Ten years ago, a lot of breweries found they could get away with soliciting a friend to design their beer packaging. Not anymore.

With so many beers competing for attention on the shelves, standout beer labels have become a critical part of any brewery's marketing strategy.

So which breweries have come up with those really standout designs?

Smoked beer — Rauchbier in German —traditionally acquires its particular flavor from heating malted barley over an open fire, though craft brewers these days are finding many ways of imparting a smokiness in their brews. Often evocative of bacon, bonfires, and/or whisky, it’s one of the more divisive genres of beer out there.

Here are seven eclectic examples to try. All achieve smokiness in different ways, and all with excellent results....

For example, a third of US consumers say they are making changes to their lifestyle to benefit the environment and only one in 10 say it is too much of a hassle to be green, according to Mintel’s Natural and Organic Personal Care US 2015 report. A similar picture emerges in Europe, where a quarter of French, Italian and German consumers and one in five Spanish and Polish consumers claimed to be paying more attention in Q1 2016 to the environmental impact of the products they buy.

Of course, it is one thing to claim you are environmentally friendly, and quite another to act on it — meaning consumers tend to overstate their “goodness”. Nevertheless, as environmental issues become more real to consumers and become more ubiquitous in the news cycle, behaviours will change. Consumers also expect businesses to be sustainable on their behalf.

Some brewers have already recognised this need and attempted to integrate sustainability more closely into their business. The trend has been particularly visible in the craft beer segment, where many pioneering breweries have touted since the 1980s and ‘90s the same community and environmental concerns that are now increasingly valued. These efforts will become a priority in the wider industry as the global population grows and demand for beer rises, with water security likely to be a particular focus given its importance to the industry’s long-term viability....

If you’re on a business trip to the city of Lausanne in Switzerland, you might have to think twice about drinking an evening beer on your company’s tab in one of the city’s bars. Eyebrows would certainly be raised in accounting at a 33cl beer that costs a whopping $17.60. Situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, the city has the highest beer prices in the world, according to a ranking released by GoEuro.

The website compared the price of local and imported draught beer in hotel bars worldwide to compile their ranking. If you find yourself on a business trip to Lausanne, it might be better to visit one of the city’s supermarkets where a bottle of beer costs only $1.42 on average by comparison.Hong Kong also charges extortionate prices for alcoholic drinks in bars with a 33cl beer coming in at just over $11 on average.

Paris and Zürich follow with beer prices in bars averaging $10.08 and $10.03 respectively. New York is the only US city to make the top 10 of GoEuro’s ranking with a 33cl beer in a bar costing $9.22 on average. Rome and Tel Aviv round off the ten costliest places to drink beer worldwide with both charging just over $9 on average.

There is a massive disparity with the cheapest cities for beer drinkers, the majority of which can be found in Eastern Europe. Bratislava’s bars charge a mere $2.80 on average for a 33cl with Kiev and Cape Town coming second and third for the world’s most affordable brews.

When the weather warms up, the arctic length of the supermarket beer aisle starts to beckon. And every year, when we venture over, we are amazed by the amount of design talent on display. Moreover, it is clear that the trends in beer label design are always changing.

The growth of the craft beer (a.k.a. artisanal, a.k.a. micro-brewed, a.k.a. small batch, whatever) industry appears to be unstoppable. In fact, there are so many bottles to choose from now, almost all of them thoughtfully designed, that it has become rather difficult for any one to stand out. Is it still possible to do so on the basis of a particularly good beer label design alone?

We think so.Here is our trend observation: the best examples of beer label design today do not take the middle road. They are either distinctly maximal (colorful, visually loud, eclectic and full of attitude) or minimal (confidently spare, geometric, typography-oriented, exuding elegance). Below we’ve rounded up our favorite recent examples of each type...

The guys at Brooklyn's Pop Chart Lab's already put out the most comprehensive beer infographic on the planet, but you'd die of alcohol poisoning if you tried to drink your way through it, even in a year. Inspired by the annoyingly repetitive school bus tune, Pop Chart's latest is a lot more manageable. The 99 Bottles of Craft Beer on the Wall chart is a scratch-off checklist of almost 100 craft beers.

As we become more submerged in beer culture, it's a given that some untruths can slip into your hop-soaked consciousness. It's all good. It's not like you're one of those people who believes the Earth is flat just because you read it on Facebook (or are you?!).

You can be forgiven for thinking that the fast-talking neckbeard with the cellar knows everything about aging. But maybe, just maybe, he's full of crap.In the interest of making your world more well rounded, we hit up a handful of Certified Cicerones, beer writers, and even scientists to debunk some of the most pervasive beer myths....

While it's certainly important for a beer to taste good, there's no denying that packaging has some influence on people's buying decisions.

Ten years ago, a lot of breweries found they could get away with soliciting a friend to design their beer packaging. Not anymore. With so many beers competing for attention on the shelves, standout beer labels have become a critical part of any brewery's marketing strategy.

So which breweries have come up with those really standout designs? Let's take a look at 14 breweries that set themselves apart....

If you thought Coke Zero's drinkable billboard was impressive, Carlsberg would like to serve you some outdoor advertising with a bit more kick.

The Danish brewer, with help from ad agency Fold7 and design company Mission Media, unveiled a beer-dispensing billboard at The Old Truman Brewery on Brick Lane in London. The billboard was emblazoned with the headline, "Probably the best poster in the world." The brand was on hand to monitor the drinkers, making sure no one was under 18....