SingleCut Beersmiths is a craft brewery inspired by rock ’n’ roll. The name “SingleCut” refers to a single-cutaway guitar design. From day one, every beer produced by this independent brewery has paid homage to rock music.

SingleCut’s core audience leans slightly male, between the ages of 25 and 49. And in recent years, SingleCut has seen an influx of younger, tech-savvy craft beer drinkers choose its brand as they fall in love with premium hops and rock classics.

With a relatively modest production budget of $22,000 (USD), we were challenged to develop an idea for a new, limited-edition beer that would fuse the brewery’s love of craft beer and guitars.

Introducing Notes IPA, the first beer crafted to teach you guitar.

Four distinct labels were designed to display a guitar fretboard and a foundational chord: C, D, G or E minor. By gripping the can like you would a guitar, you’ll learn the finger positions for these chords and get a feel for guitar strings through the label’s tactile finish.

Scanning the Snapchat code on the labels activates a shareable augmented reality guitar lesson right on the can and turns it into a playable instrument. This lets you hear how the chords should sound, create your own unique chord progressions and share your music via Snapchat.

Every pull tab is fitted with a custom-made guitar pick, designed to pop open the beer and pop off for you to play with. The picks are made using injection moulding and offer the same authentic weight and feel that seasoned guitarists expect.

In the summer of 2021, Notes IPA was available for purchase in New York City and other select U.S. markets. Four-packs were also sent to guitarists in the US and Canada. Ultimately, Notes IPA was produced as a limited-edition run of 50 barrels (13,000 cans).

From a materials standpoint, the custom pull-tab picks were made of a flexible polymer using injection moulding. These picks needed to have an authentic weight and feel, be strong enough to open the beer, and be flexible enough to play guitar with. Tactile labels were printed using several layers on metallized BOPP, resulting in an electric vibrancy. And the vertical lines of the guitar strings mirrored actual steel strings.

With all the design elements in place on the packaging, the augmented-reality experience was then mapped around them to seamlessly integrate the physical product and the virtual guitar lesson.

Notes IPA sold out twice as fast as an average SingleCut release. And in addition to being the brand’s most successful social initiative to date on an engagement level, the AR lens performed three times above the average lens playtime for Snapchat and had a cost per swipe $1 lower than the benchmark ($0.48 vs. $1.50).

The integrated campaign was featured on Dieline, the leading publication for innovative package design, as well as Guitar World, the iconic guitar magazine. It was also picked up by the global trade press and was an Ad Age Editor’s Pick of the Day.