Americans drank 6.3 billion gallons of beer in 2015. Fifty percent of that volume is increasingly sold in cans as craft breweries continue to grow and choose can over bottle. However, most of these plastic six-pack rings end up in our oceans and pose a serious threat to wildlife for the potential entanglement and even worse, animals eat the plastic and die of hunger as their digestive systems get clogged. According to GreenPeace, 80% of Sea Turtles and 70% of Seabirds are ingesting plastic today.

Together with Saltwater Brewery (SWB), a small craft beer brand in Florida, we decided to tackle the issue head on and make a statement for everyone to follow. We ideated, designed, prototyped and manufactured the Edible Six Pack Rings (E6PR). A six-pack packaging design made with materials that instead of killing animals are edible. By using byproducts of the beer brewing process such as barley and wheat, this packaging goes beyond recycling and strives to achieve zero waste. The E6PRs are the first ever 100% biodegradable, compostable and edible packaging implemented in the beer industry.

E6PRs changed Saltwater Brewery forever. Almost ALL volume & sales gains stem from the E6PRs SKUs. Volume, not counting draught, for canned beer increased 640% while draught sales have only increased 17%. These numbers represent an increase in beer barrels from 6,813 in 2016 to 16,143 in 2017 and a projected 26,346 for 2018. What this means in dollar sales is we practically help take a 1.4 MM USD operation to 15 MM USD. That is a 10X sales increase.

Salt Water Brewery has not grown even more as it maxed production capacity. Building a new brewery with 10X the current output is underway and estimated forecasted sales with the new plant are north of 150 Million Dollars. The brewery valuation increased from 1.5 Million to 15 million today, and a very achievable 150 million company valuation as the new brewery is ready in 2019.

Media reach & engagement results are equally robust: During the first ten days, we earned almost 3 Billion Global Impressions. After three weeks we had gathered 12.9 Billion Global Impressions. Today, the most recent tally is 21.3 Billion Global Impressions.

Within two weeks the story had over 150 million views on Facebook, a full 145 million in two weeks on NowThis (62.7MM), The Dodo (16.7MM) AJ+ (48.6MM) & Playground (17.7MM) that posted our story. In 2018 with availability of the product at mass scale in over 500 retail stores we gathered an additional 50 MM views and counting.

That is quite a healthy return on a 100k investment if you ask us ;-)

This creative idea has become the most viral in beer advertising history, more than that, it is the result of an idea that was brought to life by an independent creative agency for a small independent craft brewery that has transformed sustainable packaging forever. That is creative effectiveness at its purest. ?There’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.