The Public House Brings Boring Doesn’t Sell to the Non-alcoholic Beer Category

Non-alcohol beers are pretty ubiquitous these days, but ambitious start-up Fierce Mild hopes to shake things up with their Irish-made oering that launches this summer. 

To bring Fierce Mild to market, the team engaged The Public House to create the brand positioning, brand ID and packaging for the brand. 

The brand already had a differentiating liquid formation. Most non-alc’s start off as traditional beer and are stripped of their alcohol, whereas Fierce Mild is brewed to retain all its original character - unlocking a true beer taste with a trilogy of hops.

This product story unlocked a positioning for Fierce Mild that is focused on ‘keeping your character’ which The Public House brought to life through a ferociously original pack design.

The agency worked across everything from tone of voice and messaging, to logo and character design and onto the final can, and bottle, creating a bunch of highly distinctive assets that all sang cohesively from the same hymn sheet. From a hand-painted logo mark that felt gritty yet passionately crafted just like the product itself, to a wild character design that embodied both the Fierce and the Mild of the brand, the design team created everything in-house, under one roof. This translated to can and bottle design in an incredibly reductive way — a minimalist colour palette and lots of clean negative space reinforcing the idea of good tasting and natural liquid inside. 

Fergal Carroll, co-founder of Fierce Mild, said, “We knew we had a great-tasting beer and had a vision of what Fierce Mild would evoke and represent. The Public House steered our vision in all the right directions and the product ended up in a place that we all could get behind. We’re beyond grateful to have worked with such a talented and focused bunch of creatives. No idea was too big, nor task too small. TPH has played a vital role in Fierce Mild's early go-to-market success.”

Eimear O’Sullivan, head of design at The Public House, said, “With a positioning all about character we knew it was the perfect opportunity to craft core brand assets that were unapologetically and distinctively Fierce Mild. Amongst these assets was the idea to create a brand mascot to embody the juxtaposition of the Fierce Mild brand and act as a strong visual cue reinforcing brand recognition in a busy category. Part cuddly, part spiky, blowing a bold flame with an expression that made one feel just a little uncomfortable, this character was our little touch of madness that felt distinctively Fierce Mild.” 

This design is another example of the agency’s anti-formula approach to building attention-grabbing brands in line with their philosophy that ‘Boring Doesn’t Sell’. The independent creative agency works with a diverse portfolio of ambitious clients including FBD Insurance, EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum, 48, Cadbury and Barnardos.