This story was updated at 5 p.m. on March 6, 2014
With strategy in hand, beer maker moves to grow its business in Ontario and Quebec
Molson Coors Canada has moved its Creemore Springs beer brand and its affiliated Mad & Noisy label to Rethink.
The account moved without a formal review. The agency currently oversees two of Molson Coors’ large-scale beer brands: Molson Canadian and Rickard’s.
The Creemore Springs account formerly resided with Toronto agency Cleeansheet Communications, a relationship that Karen Gaudino, director of marketing at Creemore Springs, called “fabulous.”
When Cleansheet came on board in 2012, Molson “hadn’t done a lot of work on the brand. We were looking for strong strategists and that’s what [Cleansheet] really delivered on for us,” Gaudino said. “Moving forward into activation, we felt that Rethink might be able to bring more to the table for us.”
Molson also saw benefits to housing the Creemore account with an agency already working on other brands, she said.
The strategy developed by Cleansheet was meant to differentiate the product within the craft beer segment – one of the industry’s strongest growth areas.
“As the craft category has exploded, everybody has the same functional benefits of being ‘fresh’ and ‘local,’ having good ingredients and good brewing. [Cleansheet’s] insights were about tying the emotional value of what our brand stands for to our drinkers.”
Caleb Goodman, partner and managing director at Rethink, told Marketing he doesn’t expect a “dramatic” change in how the beer is marketed in the short term, but did say the brand has set “ambitious” sales goals, “and we’ll be taking some actions to achieve those.”
Gaudino also said Creemore Springs is considering a packaging “refresh.” It currently works with Jump Branding & Design, an agency that, alongside Cleansheet, contributed packaging and branding concepts that won 10 medals at the 2013 World Beer Championships Packaging Competition.
Creemore, named for the Ontario town where it’s brewed, is available in several provinces, but Ontario is by far it’s strongest market. Gaudino said growth for the brand will likely come from Ontario and Quebec. New work is expected in the early summer.
