Launching an “Illegal” Product with New Belgium
In 2018, New Belgium Brewing was launching The Hemperor, a new hemp pale ale, and Backbone had to get creative to work around cannabis-related social platform restrictions.
Backbone took a multi-channel media approach to the Hemperor launch, with a digital takeover Rolling Stone’s homepage, OOH placements in Brooklyn, Chicago, Charleston and Denver, and tongue-in-cheek creative that avoided — and called out — cannabis advertising restrictions on Facebook and other platforms. Embargoed press coverage and a coordinated influencer campaign launched simultaneously with the broader campaign for a coordinated paid and earned media campaign.