We started with a brand definition exercise. I asked the team to each submit 8 – 10 songs that they would put on the Springdale road trip playlist. It was meant to use music as an instrument to help better understand “who” this brand was. What we revealed in the process was a real brand personality that also solved a challenge for us.
We had 10 Hazy IPAs slated to release in consecutive months from MAR – DEC. I knew these needed a unifying thread and that thread was this music. We decided to create the beers as an homage to the playlist. So the 2020 Springdale Playlist was born and we set out to inspire the beers from the list.
Rounds of curating, discussion, and of course beers lead us to our top 10. We could then take all of this rich story and reason to exist into design and come up with something with purpose. Anthem Branding established the architecture in our re-branding exercise and executed the first two in the series. From there it was onto my talented designers Anna and Katie to execute the remaining 8. Each one tells a wonderfully unique story that we elaborate on in a monthly blog.
But we didn’t stop there. The beers, the playlist, the cans are exceptional, but they had to come to life. Music had to be woven into our active DNA. We started constructing incredible ways to activate the brand alongside music and, as is the refrain this year, COVID torched them all.
Undeterred, we went back to the drawing board and devised new ways to bring our brand and series to life with Music. The team curated weekly playlists in the heat of the pandemic that captured our true moods and spoke directly to our fan’s feelings. That evolved into an 8 week series we dubbed Springdale Sessions which provided a digital platform to share music together. We’ve added conversations around music and continue to use this platform as a means to express ourselves.
This year has had its challenges. This series was on the chopping block for a hot minute. I’m glad to have held on to it, helped breathe life into it, and worked with a team that believed in it. The series has done well for us and our fans. Next year will be even better!
