Grimbergen & Carlsberg Group

Case Study

Grimbergen + Carlsberg Group

The process from when it actually went into production to when we had assets just felt very smooth and very quick. So, certainly, we saved some time there in this production. It still felt like we invested less time than we would have done with a creative agency.

Rune Schlosser - Global Digital & Social Manager

About Grimbergen Carlsberg Group

Burned, but not destroyed.

Known for the stately gold phoenix on its label, Gimbergen beer is a unique drink. An abbey beer, Grimbergen got its start almost 900 years ago at the Grimbergen Abbey, in a little village just north of Brussels. While the setting was perfectly idyllic, the abbey was destroyed by three separate fires since 1128. Undeterred by hardship, the Grimbergen Fathers rebuilt the abbey time and time again—reviving their homemade beers each time.

Today, Grimbergen beer maintains its legacy of hospitality, comfort, and good taste when you want to spoil yourself after a hard day of work, while ensuring a reliable experience. A welcoming pint of Grimbergen brings people together, just like it always has.

In 2008 the Carlsberg Group, established in 1847 by master brewer J.C. Jacobsen, recognized the potential of bringing Grimbergen’s amazing beer and its story to markets outside of Belgium and helped launch large scale marketing campaigns to an international audience.

One of the world’s leading brewery groups, the Carlsberg Group boasts over 140 brands in its portfolio of beer and other beverage brands and is committed to producing the beverages at the heart of moments that bring people together. Right now, the Carlsberg Group has more than 40,000 employees and sells its products in more than 150 markets. As the Group likes to say, they are living their purpose of brewing for a better today and tomorrow.

To build on their legacy of success and keep pace with changing markets, Grimbergen wanted to shift their energy toward becoming a lifestyle brand—showcasing the unique stories and how Grimbergen is more than a beer—it’s an experience.

To do this, they needed a team capable of delivering diverse, cost-effective shoots, and unparalleled agility. They didn’t have the time or the capacity to juggle the fees and processes of a full-on creative agency, though. They came to Snapwire, instead.

Here’s what happened.

Rune Schlosser

Global Digital & Social Manager

Est. 1847

140 Beverage Brands

150+ Markets

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On Location Shoot in Sardinia, Italy

Completed creative briefs

Images delivered including 5 GIFs

The Challenge

Before partnering with Snapwire, the Carlsberg Group was already one of the leading brewery groups in the world. Boasting a broad portfolio of beer and other beverage brands, such as Grimbergen, they enjoyed broad distribution and name recognition.

Their vast suite of products required extensive marketing, though, and Carlsberg found that they were struggling to transport the Grimbergen product to the locations selected for product shoots, and straining to develop a blend of different product photos that were on-brand and authentic while also being compelling.

In fact, it was so difficult to experiment with their shoot location that Grimbergen Beer had rarely taken a product outside for a localized product shoot before they started working with Snapwire.

Despite Grimbergen’s stunning success, they remain a lean company, and their budget didn’t allow for investment in a massive marketing agency.
As a result, they shot most of their material inside, in living rooms and restaurants as a result of brand positioning and the need to change environments.
While they wanted to take their products out into the world and expand the occasions highlighting the Grimbergen lifestyle, and anyone who’s worked in visual production knows that it’s far more complicated to organize a shoot than doing something in-house.

This is where Snapwire came in.

The Solution

As soon as Grimbergen partnered with Snapwire for their shoots, they started experiencing time savings on production. According to Rune Schlosser, Global Digital & Social Manager of Grimbergen:

The process from when it actually went into production to when we had assets just felt very smooth and very quick. So, certainly, we saved some time there in this production. It still felt like we invested less time than we would have done with a creative agency.

Because of the nature of this project, one of Grimbergen’s key metrics was creative exploration. The brand was well established, but they wanted to see how far they could push the envelope, while still being on-brand.

The Results

After partnering with Snapwire, Grimbergen’s assets were available to their markets on a broad level, and the brand succeeded in trying things they’d rarely explored before.

When asked about his favorite part of working with Snapwire, Schlosser responded,

I think how close you can get to the actual content producer in a very quick amount of time, I really like that bit… So, that kind of flexibility, just saying, ‘Well, we would like to look at this city,’ and then that can happen really quickly. That’s a huge time saver.

Another key result of working with Snapwire was global rights.

Beyond the benefit of flexibility for location is also the models used for the shoot. This has always caused a headache because of the need for ongoing rights. Working with the Snapwire models is a relief, especially when working on global digital marketing, where it’s super hard to manage stuff like that on the IP side. Even a small thing like having global rights from the get-go is a big relief and bonus.

Grimbergen & Carlsberg Group