Bundaberg Brewed Drinks

Creative Agency: AKA Brand Design
Executive Creative Director: Austin Marsden
Design Director: Stuart Robson
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: Bunaberg Brewed Drinks
Location: Sydney, Australia
Packaging Contents: Naturally brewed, non alcoholic premium adult flavoured beverages

The design challenge was to revitalise this well known Australian brand.

The world of soft drinks has changed a lot since 1960 when the Australian family owned beverage company, Bundaberg Brewed Drinks starting brewing. The leader in naturally brewed, non alcoholic premium adult flavoured beverages, was going through a strong growth phase when they approached AKA Brand Design to develop a contemporary new look for their iconic brand.

With global consumer trends strongly focused towards more premium, natural, non alcoholic alternatives that offered nostalgic appeal, Bundaberg saw this as an ideal opportunity to redesign its packaging to make it more relevant to its younger consumers of today whilst retaining its loyal consumers at the same time.

In order to continue growth and reinvigorate the brand, we were challenged with developing a design that was not only aspirational, but sophisticated and fashionable whilst communicating its key points of difference to its competitors. Its old-school craft brewing process was one of its key competitive advantages, this along with being an Australian family owned company that used real ingredients had to play a significant role on pack and be communicated in a way that stamped its authenticity and heritage.

Playing on semiotics, we retained some elements of the existing packaging design, whilst giving it a younger more contemporary feel. The use of the existing Bundaberg logo saw it stand prouder on pack by increasing its prominence, we created a consistent central visual element that highlighted the use of the real fruit ingredients in each variant. To reinforce the products quality and craftsmanship, a stamp features on pack to highlight the time and care taken in the craft brewing process. It also seemed an obvious transition that the complete range be repackaged in Bundaberg’s iconic Ginger Beer 375ml stubby bottle with its ring pull function, which was a signature for the brand and beloved by consumers of all ages.

The final packaging was launched across their entire drinks portfolio. The re-design of the range and transition of all products into the 375ml stubby bottle has had a significant impact in market; attracting a new younger audience whilst remaining relevant to their loyal customers both locally and in over 40 countries around the world. Since the launch of its new packaging design in September 2015, Bundaberg Brewed Drinks has seen significant growth and an increase in sales worldwide.

The AKA team were very professional adopting a great understanding of the needs of all key stakeholders and constraints of suppliers. The team were great to deal with as they have a strong commercial understanding of importance of both the consumer and shelf presence. Each design across the range was carefully thought out, achieving the brand identity elements intended to revitalise our entire product range. – Testimonial – Leesa Kugel – Brand Manager

What’s Unique?
The re-design saw the transition of all the products in the range into the iconic 375ml Bundaberg Ginger Beer stubby bottle with its unique ring pull function, which was a signature for the brand. This allowed the range to have a consistent shape which in turn helped with shopper recognition and navigation as the existing packaging saw various shapes and sizes of the bottles.

We also created a stamp feature for this redesign, to highlight the time and care taken in the craft brewing process as well as to reinforce the quality and craftsmanship of the product.