Page 32 - Packaging News magazine Jul-Aug 2021

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COVER STORY | www.packagingnews.com.au | July-August 2021
Big impact from Little Bang
Fast-growing craft brewery Little Bang has used HP Indigo variable data printing to give its beer cans presence on the shelves and personality in the eyes of the consumer. Wayne Robinson reports.
labels, including buying time on a local canning and labelling line. But there were issues, and by 2018 as pro- duction was really ramping up the duo knew they needed a better solu- tion. By chance one of their custom- ers was Ian Sarney, local area sales manager for leading label printer Peacock Bros.
Davidson says, “Ian was a top bloke, he liked beer, and when we talked about the ongoing issues we were having with labels he rattled off solutions and opportunities we could not even dream of. We were gripped.
“As he showed us what could be done, we really understood the opportunity – high impact visuals with variable data could provide us with a great marketing solution to make Little Bang beers stand out, emphasise their personality, provide a point of difference.”
LABELS THAT POP
Since that time Little Bang has used Peacock Bros. as its label producer, and specifically has used both its HP Indigo digital colour presses while leveraging the features such as HP’s Mosaic variable data software.
HEN Ryan Davidson and Fil Kemp started the Little Bang Brewing Co. craft beer-mak- ing operation in Adelaide eight years ago, they had lit- tle idea how popular their product would become. In
that time, it has grown from a first run of 5000 litres a year to 500,000. They have moved twice, their beer is now sold all over Australia, and they plan more expansion.
While craft brewing is flavour of the month, and its rapid uptake appears to mark a return to local rather than mass produced beer, it is nonetheless a competitive envi- ronment. Those beers are compet- ing with the multitude of other craft beers available, and multitude of established beers produced by breweries with very deep market- ing pockets, and vast experience in getting their product purchased.
MARKETING SMART
Little Bang recognised that it would have to be smart with its limited mar- keting budget, and recognised the visuals of the can could play a major part in creating impact for both its online sales and its increasing num- ber of in-store opportunities.
Little Bang started with a trio of beer styles that the duo identified as missing in the market: a Barleywine, a Saison, a Steam Ale, and they gave them improbable names, like Galactopus. Ryan Davidson says, “We were doing absolutely everything ourselves. When it came to the labels it was me and Photoshop to create them, and we had a labeller to print them, and then we stuck them on by hand, which with 8000 cans meant we had serious RSI.”
Those labels had standout graph- ics, and for five years Little Bang used various means to print and apply the
ABOVE: Little Bang recognised the visuals of the can could play a major part in creating impact for both its online sales and its increasing number of in-store opportunities.