For the campaign -- aimed partly at gaining awareness in new
markets -- Goose Island is being careful to maintain its image as a
gritty, urban brewer known for an innovative pipeline of specialty
beers, such as Sofie, a Belgian-style farmhouse ale, and Lolita,
aged with raspberries in wine barrels. The push includes print,
out-of home and a digital video that mixes city images with shots
of beer ingredients, such as a bowl of cherries, brewery scenes and
warehouses stocked with bourbon and wine barrels where some of the
beers are aged. The tagline is "To What's Next." The media buy
includes Travel and Leisure, Rolling Stone and specialty-beer publications
such as All About Beer.
Kindling excitement
How much of a cult following does Goose Island have? On Black
Friday, hundreds of people stood in long lines in cities such as
Austin and New York to snare Bourbon County Stout, a rare
barrel-aged beer that Goose Island has released intermittently for
brief periods since 1992. Maintaining such excitement among
hardcore fans could be tough, especially in a craft-beer world
where enthusiasts are often skeptical of big-brewer motives.
"We're at a time where almost any craft acquisition will be met
with some knee-jerk backlash among certain circles," said Jenn
Litz, who covers the industry for Craft Business Daily. But brands
like Bourbon County "have really helped Goose Island hold on to
cachet, and they're really trying to leverage that."
At the same time, Goose Island's largest brands, which include
312 Urban Wheat Ale and Honker's Ale, continue to fly off the
shelves after achieving national distribution this year, thanks to
A-B InBev's wholesaler network. Sales for all Goose brands jumped
62% in the 52 weeks ending Nov. 3 to $31.7 million, according to
IRI, which does not include bar and restaurant sales.
That's a pittance of the $14.7 billion in total sales made by
A-B InBev in the period. But with the craft industry thriving,
Goose Island is eyeing even more growth with the new campaign.
The effort wasn't subject to the rigorous copy-testing standards
that A-B InBev is known for, which is one example of how Goose
execs say they are operating independently from their parent. "We
get very, very, very little direction from Anheuser-Busch," said
CEO Andy Goeler, who worked in various roles at A-B for 34 years
before taking the Goose assignment in 2012.
Moving to the next level
He replaced retiring founder John Hall, who began making beer at
the Goose Island Brewpub on Chicago's North Side in 1988 when the
craft-beer industry was in its infancy. The name refers to a small
artificial island nearby in the Chicago River. The pub is still
open, but Goose today is headquartered on Chicago's West Side in a
nondescript building and small brewery nestled among industrial
warehouses.
"We bought Goose Island for what Goose Island was: authentic,
very credible," Mr. Goeler said. "The intent was not to change any
of that but to continue to evolve it and let it move to the next
level."
Goose still faces some criticism within the beer world, however,
including for its move to brew 312 (which is a Chicago area code)
at an A-B InBev brewery in Baldwinsville, N.Y. "I still often hear
from hardcore beer nerds who are upset about the sale of Goose
Island and won't consider buying its brands," said Andy Crouch, a
columnist for BeerAdvocate magazine. But he said even beer geeks
agree that Goose's line of barrel-aged beers "remain among the best
produced in this country."
Mr. Goeler said the shift of Goose's largest beers to A-B InBev
breweries has freed space for more experimentation at the Chicago
brewery. Goose also gets access to an A-B InBev-owned hop farm in
Idaho, where the craft brewer controls its own plot. That's the
birthplace of a hop in one of the brewer's newest brands, a winter
seasonal called Ten Hills Pale Ale.
Like all Goose brands, the brew was crafted with no consumer
testing or market research, relying on the creativity of Brewmaster
Brett Porter. That's in contrast to A-B InBev, which typically
takes years to develop big new brands. "We are not sitting here
analyzing what is the potential interest," said Goose Island
VP-Marketing Mark Hegedus. "We are just saying, 'Let's make this
great beer, let's make it the best we can, and let's tell the story
behind why.'"