Vancouver’s Granville Island Brewing is showing off its new look – photo-collage labels and West Coast lifestyle-inspired packaging – with a billboard and radio campaign developed by Publicis Vancouver called ‘It’s good to be here.’

The brewer, popular among Vancouver’s arts and cultural community and the 25- to 44-year-old demo, normally uses radio to promote its brand. But the billboard presence, which begins today, will not only give the brand a chance to show off the new packaging but better connect with the community, Granville Island Brewing’s director of marketing and sales Walter Cosman tells MiC. The radio component will focus on core brand and product advertising.

‘As a community brand, we needed to be a little more visual to begin with,’ he says. ‘We felt like connecting on a local level. It’s important to be visible in our community.’

‘Our old packaging had some guys working on the docks, or guys pulling a boat – things that were maybe a little bit more industrial. We wanted to have more of an aspirational, lifestyle feel,’ says Cosman. It’s been 10 years since Granville, which celebrates its 25th birthday this year, has updated its packaging.

Publicis Vancouver, which also handled the media buy, teamed up with local photographer Lionel Trudel to capture favourite West Coast pastimes. The imagery was put through three rounds of voting among focus groups, which included both online and in-person rating at the brewery. With unique taglines like ‘Empties have never looked so good,’ the new packaging scored highly, says Cosman. ‘Our beer is a big part of our lifestyle. You can ski and golf on the same day and at the end of those activities enjoy a Granville Island beer, so we wanted to have packaging that reflected that.’