Jones Knowles Ritchie Shanghai Lights up Budweiser Collectible Bottles for the World Cup

Brand design agency Jones Knowles Ritchie Shanghai is celebrating the year’s most-watched sporting moment with a limited-edition China release of eight collectible bottles designed for Budweiser beer.

The design concept harnesses the euphoric energy of the global campaign idea ‘Light Up the FIFA World Cup‘ and serves as a cohesive visual identity for Budweiser’s campaign activity across 200,000 touch points in 25 cities in China.

René Chen, partner & managing director, Jones Knowles Ritchie Shanghai said, “In a sea of sponsorship advertising only surpassed in noise by Singles Day, we had an interesting challenge at hand. How could we create a differentiating design that’s inherently Budweiser, takes its FIFA sponsorship beyond logo placement, and offer Budweiser’s parallel activations a consistent look and feel?”

The resulting simple and bold bottle design starts with the instantly recognisable Budweiser bowtie, with light emanated to form the key design, then transformed into the dominant flag colours of China’s (other) favourite football teams – England, Russia, Germany, France, Portugal, Argentina, Spain and Brazil. The bottle design inspired a campaign visual identity that extended across all elements of online and offline communications including TV, OOH and in-store.

Joseph Lee, Marketing VP, APAC North, Budweiser, Anheuser-Busch InBev said, “With positive feedback on WeChat, requests for increased production volumes and extension of the design to the aluminium cans too, we’re thrilled the collectible bottles capture the celebratory, upbeat and premium experience of the Budweiser brand. What started as impactful packaging has become extendable and scalable across communications.”

Chen added, “While it’s often a forgotten component of the marketing mix, design, when done smartly, can make a big impact by itself. At first glance the FIFA design may look simple – easy, even. But often the simplest designs are the hardest to crack. I’m extremely proud of the team for distilling our design vision into such a smart, on-brand solution.”

Source: Campaign Brief Asia

  Alcohol, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Beverage, Branding, China, collectibles, Design, FIFA World Cup, Jones Knowles Ritchie, Marketing, Packaging, Promotion, Shanghai, Sponsorship