This spring we completed work on a brand development project for award-winning Lyons, CO distillery, Spirit Hound. We’ve known the founders for years, love their products and are proud to call them friends.
Collectively we’ve always felt their brand was too often overlooked and their unique, authentic story under-told – and while the mixed drinks in their tasting room are refined and exceptional, their mixed marketing messages could use some work. We were stoked they agreed to bring us on board to help.
In standard Turn It Up fashion we all sat down for some drinks and went for a deep dive into the Spirit Hound ethos. It wasn’t a trip through their history, rather a journey into their souls. Skeletons were unearthed, discord discussed, hazy intentions clarified, and true purpose identified. It wasn’t an easy walk, the path occasionally obscured and uphill, but we went forward together.
What emerged from this undertaking was a unified group with a clear, intentional, and relatable understanding of their brand, along with a cohesive document outlining the key architectural elements needed to support it: foundation, pillars, position, mission, audience, stories, voice, and tone. It’s an exceedingly thorough and utilitarian blueprint, a reference with elements that can be deployed any time, in a wide variety of applications.
An architecture like this lays the groundwork and includes some fully baked-in plans and content, for future projects that cover the marketing spectrum.
From here creative projects such as overall rebranding, package redesign or POS tools can take direction. Sponsorship and other activation decisions can be guided by making sure whatever opportunity they encounter aligns with the tools and audience we laid out. Digital and print campaigns, ad buys, blogs, web content, social fodder, and more were all included with aligned, intentional, and consistent messaging.
With such a robust architecture we thought it wise to also provide a more focused and easily digested document, so we compiled a concise version of their architecture into a hard cover brand book. This visually driven manual highlights key messages to convey the brand essence to any interested party: from new employees to distributors, retail accounts to potential investors.
We dig the digital edition of the brand book - click the image below to check it out. But for the real experience, we encourage you to hit up the Spirit Hound tasting room and ask to check out a copy while sipping on some of the tastiest libations in Colorado. Just make sure to give us a shout before you head over there so we can join you.
