Orchard Pig: Further research and more idea generation

Orchard Pig's brand has been very well considered and it works very well across different platforms and media. In the brief, they are not asking to be re-branded, but to make their brand reach farther. And one of the ways they want to do this is having a cider with the personality of a beer. This is the line where they point this out:

"Based on the background, history and current position of Orchard Pig we believe it is the only ‘craft beer’ like cider in the market today (craft liquid credentials, modern positioning and tone of voice) – this needs to be amplified in an integrated campaign across Communications, Packaging, Point of Pour, Point of Sale and Innovation"

One of the things that can make this cider more "beer-ish" could be creating a 6 pack for bottles. Their unique modern-rustic look with the humorous tone of voice of its product is a good starting point to have fun and go a bit crazy with country-like ideas. For instance, using a pig leg - shaped point of pour.

Other considerations were doing things like drink mats, a series of shareable gifs for social media, a customised plastic drip tray, etc, but their brand is expanded enough in that matter. This brief gives much more freedom than others, and that's because they probably don't know what they want, but they want new ideas. Making stuff that every other drink is already doing is probably not the best idea, as the studio that performed a previous brand expansion, Jolly Good Show, has already achieved that. Their identity needed to be preserved, so anything that we would create has to look exactly like how the rest of the brand. To do this, many elements of the website will be used as well as colour palettes and the general look. It would be a mistake to create something that looks completely different from the rest of the brand.

Summarising, the main products we identified that needed to be made in order to expand the brand were:

- Pig-leg point of pour: Having such a flamboyant handle for the bar, it would make people wonder what it is about and it will make someone smile every once in a while. Smiles are always a good start.


This sketch was made by Tom, responsible of modelling.



- Six pack: at first the six pack was going to have a system of strings, so when the box was pulled a head and tail of a pig would come out of the box, which would be really cheap to produce and wouldn't affect the stacking. The problem was the time in relation to the experience doing this type of crafts. It was decided to make a regular 6 pack box, but at some point it was changed to a box with two ropes to give it a more country-like feeling. To increase this experience, the ropes are placed in such way that the box would be held like it is a bucket (with the palm of the hand facing backwards), not like a shopping bag.



- Beer mats: they were going to be made until it was found out they already designed them (or at least the pump-clips designs could be easily use for that).

- Character design for the pig: the character was designed but it was reconsidered as its purpose might not be completely clear and it might be more confusing than anything else.


Character designed by Vlad.

- Face-in-hole: This was going to be done with the designed character. It is a badass pig and the holes would be under his arms, like he is holding to heads so people could take pictures there and share them online.



- Rocker pig: Like Rocker horses for kids, but for adults. A rocker pig in certain pubs could make the experience of going to the pub funnier, and people would want to take a picture riding the rocker pig. It could be created just 1 for the headquarters or their main pub, so people go over there to ride the rocker pig for good luck... or something! This solution was to replace the face-in-hole idea.

We found out that they already have designed a pig, so it would be a matter of attaching bows to the hooves.



We can think big and we can go crazy with this stuff. We don't have to produce it, we just want to show that other ideas are also there to be explored.

We also considered an advert for the animation. The other two guys in the group (animators) didn't seem to like the idea of making an animation in such short period of time. Despite I wrote this, I might write something different for a 5-10 seconds animation.



Story for animation:

There's a quiet pub, in the middle of nowhere. Everyone inside is bored and boring. No one talks to each other, all they do is drinking sadly. Their glasses are regular filled with a dark-brown-not-exciting-at-all-liquid. (If this is too short, we could even add someone looking at the time, like wishing for the time to pass soon). It's so boring you can even hear someone snoring.

The sound of a motorbike makes them raise their heads. The look at each other with a face of happiness and incredulity... one of them taps the old guy sleeping on the counter with the saliva all over. The motorbike stops, and then footsteps...

The door opens widely and the light of the motorbike dazzles everyone in the pub. When they manage to see who just came in, behind a box full of orchard pig cider there is the Notorius P.I.G. (who is a badass biker, of course). And says something epic like: kept you waiting, huh? (Not that, that's Snake's quote from MGS. we have to discuss it). The people cheer and drink with the pig's leg-shaped glass.

Everyone cheers him and the fun starts. You can see the people having fun and the old guy that was sleeping is now even dancing... or "mounting the pig" (this character should be endearing enough to provoke a laugh when he dances very excited).

The animation ends with the box almost empty over the counter of the pub, showing the logo of orchard pig. A text next to it says something along the lines of: Orchard Pig, more than just a cider (we need to discuss what is actually going to be said).