Military the Target of Miller Brewing Effort

Miller Brewing Co. takes aim at the highly competitive U.S. military post exchange market with a series of 3-D posters for its Lite and Miller Genuine Draft beers. The Milwaukee-based brewer hopes to create eye-popping appeal with designs created specifically for each branch of the armed forces. A unique print production process offers high resolution at a fraction of the cost of other dimensional print approaches.According to Mel Sharpe, Miller's marketing materials buyer: "3-D is very big in the industry right now, and that's what we wanted. The hologravure printing process we're using is an unusual technique that allows a high degree of dimensionality, so the designs seem to lift right off the page."Miller created 2,000 posters (500 for each branch of the service), and each measures 19 inches wide by 28 inches high. The "Kick'n Back" version for the Army touts Miller Genuine Draft and features a determined-looking army mule kicking off the cap of a longneck bottle of beer.The other three posters focus on Lite beer. The "All Cans on Deck" design for the Navy shows a ram charging over the jutting guns of a battleship and showcases the brand's new can graphics. The Marines' "Lite Maneuvers" has the word "Lite" spelled out of clouds in a murky night sky above a camouflage tank driving straight at the viewer. For the "Check Your Six" Air Force piece, Miller chose a fighter pilot flying in formation with six Lite beer bottles that appear to zoom outward.Art direction was coordinated internally by Jim Haas, who worked with Baskerville & Stone of Milwaukee to develop designs that would be effective in 3-D. He says: "The posters are part of a campaign that includes a metal tacker sign and a bar mirror, so we had to think ahead to make sure the designs would work with different applications. I worked very closely with the illustrator to make sure we had the dimensionality right very early in the process."Haas adds that this is the first time Miller has created designs to appeal strictly to men and women in the armed forces. He says: "This is a very competitive market, and as with everything we design, we have to find a way to stand out from the crowd by doing something unique."Once the artwork was complete, the company turned to Triad Technologies of Irving, Texas, to produce the posters. Triad achieved the 3-D effect with a patented hologravure printing process developed in 1990 by a French physicist to refract light with film. The process is similar to that used for conventional printing, except that the company develops two sets of film (including a holographic set) for each color in a four-color separation before making printing plates.Next, the colored image is printed on the back of a clear, 0.015-gauge polyvinyl chloride sheet, and a series of concave lenses are silkscreened on the front in exact register with the image. Because the PVC is clear, the lenses make the image appear dimensional. Also, PVC is durable, waterproof and fade resistant, and will support Miller's goal of having the posters in place for the long term.The posters, packaged two to a box, come fully assembled and ready to hang. Sharpe said they are intended primarily for the military's worldwide post exchanges, although they could be used in any on-premise promotional area. The posters also can be distributed to bars located near military post exchanges.

P2PI MEMBERS

JOIN P2PI

You May Also Like

Retail Radar: Walmart Ups In-Store Fulfillment; Publix Adjusts Store Formats

Hall of Fame Profile: Pamela Velarde