Super Bock Group \ Corporate Communication & Brand Management

After-the-Rebranding Challenge

Many agencies are focused on changing the identity of a big brand. What we call a Rebranding.

These projects are the pinnacle of the branding life.

They provide the opportunity for groundbreaking work. They provide awareness. They provide money, awards, word of mouth, reputation, smiles, envy, social kudos… and ultimately, they lead to new businesses. They are what every agency looks for in the branding business.

But after it’s done, agencies tend to move on to the next great brand project around the corner and forget one thing: the rebranding is not the end. It’s the end of the beginning.

A rebrand launch is a crucial moment but one of many.

A brand is not an image or a brand manifesto. It is the relationship created between the company (or products) and the people it wants to engage with. Consumers, clients, employees, shareholders, partners, the media, public opinion. For the relationship to endure it needs dozens more moments. However, since agencies don’t feel that these moments are as glamorous as the rebranding itself, they tend to shy away from them. Less glamour, less enthusiasm, less talent, less time. This is bad for brands.

The true strength of a brand lies in the quality of the relationship with people not in the quality of its platforms.

Super Bock Group Rebranding Challenge

The company launched its new ID on November 2017 – rebranding case here. From then on, the group had a new name, Super Bock Group. A new visual. A verbal identity. And a new brand positioning, “Portuguese brewery. Est. 1890”. This new ID emphasised the company’s beer heritage and Portuguese origin, as if stating, “this is where we came from, this is who we are… let’s embrace the world”.

Visually, the rebranding wanted to focus on establishing a connection to the Super Bock beer brand – its flagship consumer brand.

Verbally, it focused on a deeper level of the word ‘super’, which means ‘overcoming’. Success never comes cheap. It feeds on blood, toil, tears, and sweat (as Churchill would put it). This is a group who came a long way, overcoming many, many obstacles. Economic crisis, social unrest, cereal shortages, political revolutions, two world wars, state nationalisation, fierce competition and more. We put ‘super’ in the corporate name not just to remind people that this is the company which produces Super Bock beer, but also as a reminder that greatness comes at a cost. Great companies need to test their strengths all the time. Relaxing is the first step towards inescapable death.

Work

We wondered what key themes & elements we should develop creatively so that all SBG brand projects could share a common corporate culture and be recognised as such.

Corporate areas:

External communication

Internal communication

Marketing department

Onboarding program

Responsible drinking

Sustainability

HR

Uniting themes:

The corporate visual

The overcoming

The journey

The authenticity

The beverages

The beer

The brewing

Culture Book

The Culture book is a homage to the Group’s existence and a printed version of its culture so that every employee – especially newcomers – may know what it means and how it feels to work for the Group. It features different areas critical to SBG’s culture: beliefs, authenticity, Mission and Vision, history, corporate values, sustainability policy, and key-mottos. It was created as a day-to-day work tool. It includes post-its, a special metal clip with the company’s globe symbol, and a pullout section with certain SBG mottos that you can give away to “spread the word”.

(click to open images)

Boost Camp

A creative ongoing programme designed to help young marketeers produce ingenious solutions for SBG brands and projects through immersive workshops and work experience.

2017 Annual Report

An interactive report featuring a map that allowed viewers to ‘travel’ the corporate brand’s geography reflecting the company’s financial and economic universe. The map had an online version which allowed interaction, and a print version featuring a giant poster with popup windows containing technical information. The journey would allow people to know how 2017 had turned out for the Super Bock Group.

2018 Christmas Postcard

A very simple down-to-earth Christmas card with a crafted look stating that during the holiday season people should give more hugs and heartfelt words instead of more presents or lavish dinners. This message had sustainability overtones since the less people buy & spend the better for the environment.

Employee Birthday Gift 2019

We wanted to tell employees that Super Bock Group really understands the value of celebrations. Brewing is such a long, arduous process that when it’s finally over, all we want to do is celebrate the birth of a new beer – same as with people. For this purpose, we created a visually crafted box listing all the phases needed to produce beer, containing a specially designed beer and 2 glasses, so that each employee could make a toast to birthdays and beers.

Corporate Gift Montreux Jazz Festival Sponsorship

Super Bock beer – Super Bock Group’s mainstream star-brand – sponsored the famous Swiss jazz festival. The official sponsorship announcement took place at an event where SBG presented the festival director with a Portuguese tile celebrating both Super Bock and the festival’s legacy.