The Best, and Worst BrewDog Innovations

As we said on Facebook earlier this week, ‘Marketing now taints every field of our existence; one has little choice but to play the game, bitterly, and with a firm a shield of irony.’

Sometimes though, it’s difficult to tell where ‘marketing’ and the process of simply telling people about you beer stop, start and collide. What we are sure of, however, is that along the way there’s been about as many sure fire misses as there have been winning strikes.

Sound like a good time to look back over five of the most top dog campaigns we’ve had as well as those that are bottom of the pack? We think so too…

Top 5 winning campaigns and launches:

1. Equity for Punks: An innovative shareholder initiative that launched in 2009, Equity for Punks was a European first that saw us recruit 1,300 craft beer passionate people who wanted to become part of BrewDog and own a slice of our brewery. Equity for Punks wasn’t just about attending our legendary craft AGM or creating brews like By Shareholders, For Shareholders, it was also about creating a completely new way to raise equity which will be put towards our new eco-brewery – an entirely self-sustainable and eco-friendly craft beer hub just outside of Aberdeen. This month, we’ll be releasing more shares as part of Equity for Punks II, stayed tuned for more information. It will be announced right here on the blog first.

2. The End of History: Challenge perceptions about high strength beers. Check. Challenge perceptions about drinking anything other than fizzy yellow lagers. Check. Challenge perceptions about drinking beer out of a stoat. Check. End of History may have been one of our most ‘controversial’ concepts but it was certainly a means of pushing craft beer into the spotlight as the idea of packaging beer in a format other than the traditional can or bottle topped the BBC News website’s ‘most read’ articles and snatched column space in numerous broadsheets. One day it may no longer be the world’s strongest beer but still the only beer to have been served from the orifice of a taxidermied stoat.

3. Beer Golf: The video speaks for itself. What better way to spend a sunny Sunday in Fraserburgh than smashing bottles of mainstream swill with a golf club or a baseball bat? Darth Vader has pledged his allegiance and rumour has it that the committee behind the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games are even considering inclusion of the sport as well…what’s stopping you?

4. Abstrakt: Undeniably one of the most experimental series of craft beers around, our Abstrakt series sees traditional beer styles given the customary BrewDog shake-up – whether it’s brewing a Belgian Quad with fresh vanilla pods or aging a stout on cocoa and chillies, we’ll try it. Brewed in small, limited edition batches, Abstrakt blurs the line between art and beer and, so far, seems to be going down well.

5. BrewDog Craft Beer Bars: A huge leap into the unknown that’s be one of the most successful gambles we’ve ever made, viva la BrewDog craft beer bar! Now open in Edinburgh and Aberdeen with a further two venues to follow in Glasgow and London, BrewDog bars are an unpretentious place to savour, explore and share craft beer in an environment that’s devoid of any soulless mainstream brand that’s responsible for bringing the UK drinks industry to its knees. Our bars are also equipped with Pop Up Pirate and lovely bar staff who make very good homemade pizzas. Come and say hi.

Top 5 loosing campaigns and launches:

1. Zeitgeist blog: Ever had an amazing, world-changing late night idea that – when put into practice – doesn’t really work? So have we and it was called the Zeitgeist blog. A concept that invited artists, musicians and anyone who was living and breathing the ‘spirit of the moment’ to blog about their work and their experiences, Zeitgeist failed to capture the imaginations of the people. A great idea that didn’t work, we’re still keen to hear your thoughts on how Zeitgeist can find its place.

2. Beer leaks: A website that was set to dispel the smoke and mirrors that surround the UK beer industry and expose the myths perpetuated by advertising, Beer Leaks aimed to unmask the drinks industry for what it truly is. Instead, we were met with massive indifference – maybe people were busy, maybe they didn’t care but our Beer Leaks campaign managed to disappear from the craft beer community’s conversation faster than Julian Assange after a night out in Sweden. For now, it seems, the truth about mainstream brewing will remain under wraps...

3. Boxes of 48: Who likes loads of craft beer delivered directly to their door? We do! Who likes loads of craft beer delivered directly to their door only to find the box is too heavy to carry indoors, is full of smashed bottles and soaked in beer? We don't! Originally we put our beers in boxes of 48, simply because there was the demand and it allowed us to sell more in one go – especially useful for our friends across Europe and the states who wanted to take advantage of ordering more in one go. Sadly 48 bottles of beer makes for a heavy box, so much so that even the beers themselves cracked under the strain before they hit your glass. Now we’ve found that packaging our beers in smaller amounts makes them A) Easier to handle B) Less likely to get smashed along the way C) Less stressed in transit. Problem solved.

4. Bad Pixie: Simply put, Bad Pixie was a disaster of a lemon peel and juniper beery infused wheat prototype beer that we’d quite frankly never like to talk about again. Some of the highlights from Rate Beer include ‘pretty uneventful’, ‘strange, unbalanced and unclean’, ‘not overwhelming’ and ‘weird’. Enough said and never again.

5. Royal Virility Performance: Surprisingly, Prince William has never thanked us for the bottle we sent in the post to Buckingham Palace.

We also want to hear from you. What are your top (and bottom) BrewDog ideas.