Hawke’s Brewing Co. Expands Brand Footprint With ACM

Hawke’s Brewing Co. has delivered a 16 per cent growth in its premium beer sales by partnering with ACM newspapers in new regional markets.

Hawke’s, a premium beer brewing company co-founded with former PM Bob Hawke, is targeted at premium beer drinkers aged 30 to 60. Launched in 2017 in Sydney, the brand has quickly established itself with strong east coast distribution across major retailers such as Dan Murphy’s, BWS, 1st Choice and independents such as Cellarbrations, The Bottle-O and IGA Liquor.

The Hawke’s marketing team had ambition to scale up and increase awareness of their brand during the key summer selling period and within markets that were beyond the reach of their successful Bar/Bistro the Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre located in Marrickville, Sydney. Hawke’s Brewing Co. CEO Glen Brasington said (featured image), “We were keen to try new channels and try different mediums to reach a regional audience. The community spirit is strong at Hawke’s and we wanted to embed our brand in the day-to-day of these regions.”

In December 2022 Hawke’s partnered with ACM, stepping away from the traditional category battle grounds and giving themselves clear space to grow.

ACM managing director Tony Kendall, said, “Brewers have historically funnelled most of their investment into TV, Outdoor and digital but, it’s a competitive category and to achieve growth, brands need to differentiate themselves from the rest of the market.”

“The Hawke’s team were targeted in their approach, they saw their competitors jostling for the same inner city consumer, and by partnering with ACM’s extensive network they’ve managed to hit their ambitious growth targets in new regions.” said Kendall. The print campaign ran in ACM’s 14 daily news mastheads, weekly titles plus the Agri network and drove a huge +16 per cent uplift in sales in the ACM footprint. At a time when the total beer category had declined 0.1 per cent and the premium+ beer category 11 per cent.

“The results Hawke’s have seen is a testament to the power of the ACM audience to drive brand and sales growth for our partners,“ said ACM national sales director Sam Westaway.

“95 per cent of Hawke’s campaign was with ACM which proves our network really does move the dial.” he said.

The Hawke’s brand has a genuine social conscience, the late PM’s only condition for being involved was that any return he would personally make be donated to Landcare, the environmental charity he established in 1989 which as a grassroots movement focuses on protecting, enhancing or restoring the natural environment in the local community.

Brasington said, “We were confident Hawke’s social purpose would resonate really well with regional Australians, in particular ACM’s audience and by joining forces, we’ve been able to amplify our brand’s presence and connect to people through the charitable platform of Landcare.”

Brasington went on to say, “ACM placed our advertising adjacent to relevant content to help amplify our message and drive community engagement with the brand. Retailers of our brand also noticed and appreciated the marketing effort.”

“There is untapped potential in regional Australia. If marketers can see past common misconceptions they open up their brand to high growth potential,” Brasington said.

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