Singha beer’s US debut next month is artfully designed

Artist sense of Tokyo

This is the moment for Singha beer.  And by extension for Chicago’s very own GERTRUDE INC., for which Singha is a very big and very prominent component of the agency’s client roster.

While a household name in Thailand, where it is part of the Boon Rawd Brewery family of drink brands, Singha has for the past several years been, at best, a premium imported curiosity among beer connoisseurs in the United States.

But the Singha powers-that-be in Thailand want that to change.
And they have entrusted GERTRUDE and its creative leader, Otis Gibson, with the task of significantly raising the Thai brew’s profile in the U.S. and other key foreign markets, including Sweden, France, Singapore and Japan, where it is already a somewhat more recognized beer brand than it is here in America.

Starting next month, GERTRUDE will debut a carefully-thought-out, meticulously executed TV and social media campaign that the agency and Singha brass hope will entice the young adult target demo to put the Thai brew closer to top of mind when they are considering what beer to drink.

A refreshing approach to young adult beer drinkers

Singha’s TV campaign, with an urgently hip, pulsating musical beat composed by Damien Wallace (aka “Vitamin D”), leaves little doubt who is indeed the target market for Singha in the United States and other countries where the campaign soon will unfold.

But refreshingly, rather than trying to fill the Singha commercials with some variation on tired sports imagery or the shticky, juvenile humor so omnipresent in so much beer advertising, Gibson has opted instead to make artists and art to which young adults can relate the centerpiece of the very of-the-moment TV advertising.

To develop the content for the spots, Singha commissioned several artists to create their take on any image of their choosing related to the Singha brand. Not altogether surprisingly, all the artists opted to do an interpretation of the stunningly regal mythical lion that is the beer brand’s distinctive, sophisticated logo.

Artists in 3 cities filmed as they painted

Cameras were present as three artists in three different cities created their unique works of art while crowds of young people in hot nightspots looked on and enjoyed their Singha beer. The artist Sun7 (pronounced “Sunset”) did the honors in Paris, sense (yes, that’s his name) was the artist in Tokyo, and Kofie One (pronounced “Coffee One”) did his thing in San Francisco.

Gibson and his team took the footage shot at each event, and — with plenty of fast-paced, high-energy edits executed by Allan Roysdon of Chicago’s Crunchie Frog Inc. and a jolt of musical underscoring as mentioned earlier — turned out three spots that do a good job of capturing the excitement of young artists at work.  An excitement that the GERTRUDE folks hope will rub off on Singha and bring fresh influx of beer drinkers to the brand.

To further help sear the Singha brand name in the minds of viewers, each commercial ends with the soundtrack’s lyrics spelling out the beer brand’s name.  This campaign’s purpose, after all, is to raise the Singha profile in countries where it hasn’t yet made much of an impact.

Facebook app part of Singha’s new campaign

Rest assured, GERTRUDE hasn’t forgotten the de rigueur social media component in this new Singha campaign.  When all the pieces of the campaign are in place in early 2012, fans will have access to a Singha Facebook app that, with one click, will cause the Singha lion to show up on their wall, as well as the Facebook walls of all their friends.

It’s all about spreading the Singha name as far afield as possible, and, in the process, finding new customers.

Credits: CD, Otis D. Gibson; copywriter, Peter Toutant; designer, Inkyung Chung; director, Edward Seaton, editorial, Allan Roysdon, crunchie frog inc.; producer, Lusia Boryczko; post, Foundation Content, additional Foundation creative, Curt Cooper, Jason Voke, Jenn Moody; color grading, Filmworkers Club, colorist Fred Keller; sound design, Black Sheep Music, producer,Josh Shapera; lyrics/vocals Damien Wallace aka “Vitamin D”

To see the three spots, click here.

Contact Lewis Lazare at LewisL3@aol.com.