Brewdog 'wanted to be anti-establishment and still is'

Having worked with the controversial craft brewer since its infancy, Alex Myers, managing director of agency Manifest London, said: “BrewDog wanted to be anti-establishment and still is.

It’s this passion that made BrewDog famous among people who were already into the beer scene. But it also resonated with people who were turning up to pubs and seeing the same four taps in every place and didn’t really think very much about the beer that was coming out of them.”

BrewDog, last week, announced plans to raise a further £25m to fund the expansion of its brewery and new bars across the UK, as well as a “craft beer hotel” near its HQ outside of Aberdeen.

Myers reminded the marketers and brewers in the room that campaigns needed to excite the same kind of passion in a product to gain followers, as well as those that would go on to become ambassadors of the brand.

“BrewDog knew why it existed. But this wasn’t really marketing about beer at all. It wasn’t even saying ‘we just exist as an alternative to those [other brands]’ and it was saying ‘there’s a new future and you can be a part of it’.”

Myers added: “If people join a cause, they don’t disappear — they stay.”

BrewDog’s marketing stunts have included driving a tank down London’s Camden High Street to mark its bar opening, projecting naked images onto the Houses of Parliament, and mocking Russian president Vladimir Putin with a specially brewed beer.

“Every revolution is born with passion and everything we do is about making people passionate about the cause. BrewDog is always talking about why they are there in the first place — to change things.