I’m not much of a participator, especially when an event includes milling around amongst strangers and trying to muster enough volume to be heard over the din. This past Wednesday, however, I decided to brave stranger society in order to hear Brittni McCorquodale from McGarrah Jessee talk about the work they’ve done for the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas.
I’d already happened upon some of Shiner’s advertising out in the real world, but seeing their video, print, collateral and packaging assembled in one place made it all the more impressive to me. They just nailed everything. The funny stuff made me laugh, the folksy stuff made me feel comfortable, and their guerrilla marketing efforts left me shaking my head with admiration.
For me, the moral of the story was that before you can sell a product, you have to sell the company’s image. And to do that, you have to clearly define the brand in a way that rings true with those who knew it long before you rode your advertising horse into town.
So my first sojourn with the Ad Clubbers was pretty enjoyable. Seeing McGarrah Jessee’s great ideas was a nice little dose of inspiration for this week. And the food from Chadra was dang good, too.
