Axis IPA - Real Ale Brewing

I had the privilege of working for one of Texas’ most distinguished and awarded craft breweries, Real Ale Brewing Company in the beautiful hill country town of Blanco, Texas. In late 2016, I created and launched a brand called Axis IPA. While the Real Ale Brewing Team worked on creating a flavorful new West Coast Style IPA, I took a white board naming idea “Axis” that was originally slated to be a beer named after the mathematical term for “an imaginary line about which a body rotates” and instead recommended that we focus on the Axis breed of deer that roamed the Texas Hill Country. After authoring the creative brief, I directed a design agency (Butler Bros - Austin, TX) through multiple rounds of creative before landing on an iconic and bold design that perfectly matched the liquid gold inside the can. My execution included a comprehensive statewide launch module that was served to the entire distributor network. The launch also featured the brand selling proposition and a complete arsenal of on and off premise promotional support. The result was that Axis IPA became Real Ale’s most successful new brand launch in a decade and provided much-needed brand growth that lifted the entire portfolio into positive sales growth for 2018. Today, Axis IPA is a Top 5 IPA in Texas and is trending to outpace Real Ale’s flagship brand, Fireman’s #4.