Since the brand’s inception, The King of Beers has stood to inspire the pursuit of greatness, even in the most difficult times. For Budweiser, hardship came to pass during Prohibition in America, where the company was forced to halt beer production. While many would call it quits, Budweiser pressed on. More than 13 years passed by before Prohibition was finally repealed in 1933. In 2018, Budweiser’s goal was to take the anniversary of Prohibition’s repeal and help it grow into a national holiday. They’d do this through telling the brand’s story of resolve, romance, intrigue, and an exciting specialty lager recipe – one that would defy expectations of consumers across the country. To celebrate the 85th anniversary of Prohibition’s Repeal, Budweiser Brewmasters partnered with the Master Distillers of another iconic brand that overcame Prohibition: Jim Beam. The two came together for a first-ever limited-edition collaboration: The Budweiser Reserve Copper Lager.

Knowing that this vibrant new brew would have to represent two iconic American brands, Budweiser wanted to go beyond their main audience and capture the attention of both beer and whiskey enthusiasts. To do that, they would need a design that could do the lager justice by departing from what was standard design practice for the brand, do something unexpected and help it to stand out apart from the competition. When we kicked off the design explore for Copper Lager’s packaging and there were multiple considerations: 1) Make sure the brew was still clearly Budweiser, 2) Clearly inform that this was a new beer, not the mother brand, 3) Establish a true, balanced, and share-worthy partnership with Jim Beam.

To ensure consumers would instantly recognize Copper Lager as one made by Budweiser, we leveraged the brand’s iconic assets for recognizability – a challenging task as the brand’s signature “Bud Red” coloring was removed entirely. To help anchor the mother brand tieback, the Budweiser Script font, the AB Crest and Creed architecture were kept intact, along with featuring the famous AB eagles. In order to signal this as a new beer, the red color palette was swapped for white, black and copper. This along with rich metallic copper flourishes and bespoke tinted caps helped us create an ode to the iconic 1920’s design cues. The dominant white coloring helped create a natural synergy to Jim Beam, as this was core to the whiskey brand’s palette. That element, along with the official “Jim Beam” arched typeface & unmistakable JB stamp/ribbon, were instrumental establishing the brand balance.

Since Copper Lager’s launch in Fall 2018,—there has been greater penetration and overall higher perceptions of the Budweiser Mother brand, with the new brew gaining over 187 million PR impressions and racking up over 45 million social impressions. Copper Lager has been a top 10 share gainer across the entire U.S. beer category - leading to major brand health gains for Budweiser as a whole.