Three Floyds Brewing, the celebrated Midwestern craft brewery, is celebrating its 30 year anniversary with the debut of a new integrated campaign, “30 Years of Not Normal.” Spanning OOH, social, and digital, the new work brings the brewery’s irreverent world to life by placing their iconic characters Zombie Dust and Gumballhead into everyday Chicago environments.
Developed in partnership with its key creative agency and fellow Midwesterner, Someoddpilot, the campaign builds on its existing “It’s Not Normal” brand platform while putting a distinctly local spin on the brewery’s anniversary. At a time when craft beer is contracting, the brewer is actually outperforming the category and using its 30th anniversary as a moment to invest in the brand rather than retreat. This campaign begins a new chapter for the brand, which will be followed by a broader identity and portfolio evolution.
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At the heart of the campaign is Chicago itself. Rather than simply placing OOH around the city, Someoddpilot turned familiar local settings into the state for the brand’s larger-than-life characters. Zombie Dust and Gumballhead are seen engaging in everyday activities like grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, hanging out in the garage, and bowling - ordinary Midwestern activities made decidedly not normal by the presence of two giant beer mascots.
Beyond the OOH, SOP has also created a series of video assets to expand and improve on the gag. Zombie Dust is a green, Frankenstein-esque character who wears armor, a gold crown, and a red cape. Gumballhead is a wide-eyed, cartoonish cat character with yellow fur, a large head, sunglasses, and a cigarette in its mouth. And instead of using CGI or AI, the brand and SOP went 180 degrees in the opposite direction - tapping Margaret Rolicki, the primary artist and fabricator within the GWAR art collective, Slave Pit Inc., to give the campaign’s already-unusual characters an appropriately unconventional physical form.
Two Someoddpilot employees even stepped inside the mascot suits for the shoot - truly embracing the DIY origins of craft beer and metal music. The soundtrack comes from thrash metal band Municipal Waste, extending Three Floyds’ longstanding connection to metal culture.
“The Three Floyds brand has been so successful because they’ve always known what they are,” said Annika Welander, CEO of Someoddpilot. “For this new campaign, we leaned all the way into that heritage, borrowing aspects of metal music culture and bringing them to the everyday, mundane places where people actually drink this beer. It was a lot of fun.”
“Three Floyds has never had a problem being different. We’ve spent 30 years building this world of amazing beers, characters, art, and ideas. The challenge was tying it all together without cleaning it up or losing what people love about it. Someoddpilot got that right away. They helped us make the brand feel more consistent, without making it feel any less like Three Floyds,” said Cory Just, Marketing Director of Three Floyds.
CREDITS
Agency: Someoddpilot
Annika Welander, CEO
Justin Hoot, Partner, Account Director
Anton Jeludkov, Partner, Creative
Patrick Collins, Partner, Strategy
Ellen Evangelides, Associate Director, Client Services
Emma Pool, Senior Copywriter
Ellie Hall, Lead Video Editor
Wendy Robles, Senior Designer
Jackie Bonilla, Designer
Client: Three Floyds Brewing
Jason McMackins: President, Sales & Marketing
Cory Just: Marketing Director
Allison King: Marketing Specialist
Production / Partners
Chris Bain – Photographer
Vince DeSantiago – Videographer
