Iconic Texas beer brand Shiner has enlisted a new Texas creative agency to lead the legacy brand into its next chapter.
Spoetzl Brewery named Dallas-based The Richards Group as its new lead creative agency, following a review launched in September which concluded a 15-year relationship with Austin agency McGarrah Jessee.
“We’ve admired the Shiner brand for a long time. We feel like we have a lot in common. We are both fiercely independent Texans who take their work very seriously,” The Richards Group principal Pete Lempert said in a statement. “Shiner has a long history of brewing quality beer and they also have a long history of creativity in their products and marketing. We respect that and are proud to carry the brand forward.”
The Richards Group will be tasked with handling creative for Shiner Beer across all platforms, with broadcast the brand’s primary focus. Shiner Beer spent $761,000 on measured marketing in the U.S. last year, and $452,000 in the first six months of 2018, according to Kantar Media, presumably in addition to the $1.2 million the brand spent on its first regional Super Bowl ad.
“The Richards Group presented some engaging, memorable creative that was grounded on a nice piece of thought-provoking insight about the category and specifically our consumer. We were impressed by their category knowledge and how much time had gone in to the positioning and strategy before any creative was devised,”Gregor Mina, director of marketing for Spoetzl Brewery parent company The Gambrinus Company told AgencySpy in a statement. “The beer category particularly is undergoing some huge changes, generational, in how it is perceived and ultimately consumed so it is very important for us that our creative agency is cognizant of that and can help us continue to grow in very challenging market conditions.”
“Overall, the beer category is struggling, but Shiner is not. Our job is to continue to build upon the success the brand is having and broaden it across the country,” Lempert added. “They have a very loyal following in Texas and the surrounding states and we want to expand that loyalty nationwide.”
Mina said that the company would be “pleased” to see new work for flagship dark lager brand Shiner Bock some time in the first quarter of 2019, followed by its “fastest growth brand” Shiner Light Blonde the next quarter.
Spoetzl Brewery also recently introduced two new beers, Shiner Wicked Juicy IPA and Shiner Day Quencher Session Ale.