Coors Australia highlights its recyclable ‘ritual crush’ legacy in latest campaign via Hunter

Creative agency Hunter is bringing cool to can-crushing with its latest campaign for Coors Australia, reminding beer fans of the heritage of the brand that invented the recyclable can.

Hunter is behind the old school can crushers showing up at select bars around the country as well as a social media campaign that encourages Coors drinkers to submit their own creative can crushing videos. It’s an effort that highlights the innovative legacy of Uncle Bill Coors, the man who pioneered the recyclable aluminium beer can way back in 1959.

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Hunter knew Coors wanted to get a message about its heritage into Australian bars, but with bar managers being generally wary of marketing, they also knew the Coors message had to be conveyed in an unconventional, credible way that would get attention from 18-25-year-old beer drinkers.

Says Simon Hakim, CEO, Hunter: “When everyone else in the beer world is talking about craft, we wanted to tell the world about Coors’ rich heritage, particularly around cans and recycling. You can’t do that with a cookie-cutter approach, you can’t really do it with branded point of sale – but you can do it with a campaign like this.”

Hunter hit on the idea of hyping the cans themselves after they discovered Coors’ instrumental role in the introduction of the recyclable aluminium cans we’re familiar with today. And cans have long been an important part of the company’s brand. Today they feature the iconic Rocky Mountains that turn blue when the beer inside is at a premium coldness. The campaign revolves around the ‘ritual crush’ – the post-beer rite of disposing your cans, whether with a stomp, a crunch or a bare hand. To bring that to life, physical can crushers were installed in about 20 key bars around Australia.

Says Hakim: “Coors was one of the original upstarts in the business. Aluminium cans delivered fresher tasting beer without the aftertaste of the tin they were using up until that point, and it reduced waste. It really did kick start the recycling revolution we know today. Even today, cans have had a resurgence in popularity — we wanted to honour that. And Coors was keen to let us give it a go.”

Says Marcus Kellett, national activation manager for the Molson Coors portfolio: “Our heritage is an extremely important part of the Coors brand but it’s one that is perhaps less well known here in Australia, so we were keen to work with Hunter on the Coors Crushers to help bring it to the fore. This isn’t a typical branding exercise for us, but we love the creativity Hunter brought to the job — and the response from the venues and drinkers has been fantastic. It’s changing the brand narrative and that helps us forge better relationships with the trade too.”