Three friends in Sydney have taken on the Australian beer market with a unique world first marketing concept for their new beer.
The label is Skinny Blonde, a low-carb beer that is thriving on the current popularity of Australia’s new crop of ‘healthy’ beers.
But there is another reason it is popular: the Skinny Blonde bottle features a 1950s-style pin-up called Daisy whose red bikini disappears as the beer level drops and the bottle warms up, thanks to the modern ink technology used on the labels.
The savvy, apparently world-first, marketing ploy was born three years ago when 34-year-old Hamish Rosser and his mates – actor Richie Harkham, 29, and artist Jarrod Taylor, 33 – decided to act on a “drunken idea that actually worked”.
“We had the idea of a pin-up girl from the get go, we thought everyone uses women in their advertising campaigns so why not put it on a bottle?” Mr Rosser, who is the drummer in the Australian band The Vines, told The Times.
“So we had this idea of the disappearing bikini and researched into disappearing ink. Then we did a few trial runs and when we realized it worked we were stoked, we were over the moon.”
Crystal Lee, a barmaid at Bondi’s Beach Road Hotel, the first pub in Australia to serve Skinny Blonde, said that it was one of their most popular low-carb beers - especially when sold in a bottle.
“It’s a really popular beer, more in the bottle than on tap,” she said, before adding: “But that’s to do with the fact that the chick’s bikinis come off when people drink it.”
Ms Lee said that the beer, which has an alcohol content of 5.2%, was equally as popular among men and women – men for the bikini factor and women for the taste and that it was a ‘healthy’ beer.
The trio, who lived within streets of each other in Bondi, formed the company Brother’s Ink and began experimental home brewing in Mr Taylor’s laundry with the aim of producing a Japanese-style dry “session beer” three years ago.
“We wanted to make a beer that you can have several of rather than ales which you have one or two then you move on,” Mr Rosser, who has a degree in chemical engineering, said.
A few test runs later they were ready to serve up the first batch of Skinny Blonde and approached the Beach Road Hotel – their local and a popular drinking spot for visiting British backpackers – who agreed to help them by trialling their beer on tap.
Brother’s Ink held a party to promote their new brew and it became a hit among locals. Last December they expanded their product and introduced the bottled variety, and in turn introduced Daisy and her disappearing bikini to beer drinkers.
Mr Rosser said that they planned to expand their business around Australia and eventually to New Zealand and Britain.
“We’ll probably license it to a third party to bring it to the UK,” he said.
“But we’re just trying to grow our brand now. At the moment our focus is on sales.”
After a turbulent few years with The Vines, the Australian garage rock band who burst on to the international scene in 2002 before singer Craig Nicholls’ health issues put them on hiatus last year, Mr Rosser said that expanding Skinny Blonde was now his main priority.
“The Vines aren’t doing much right now. We will get ourselves together eventually but the beer is a full-time job at the moment,” he said.
“If it weren’t for this beer project I don’t know what I’d be doing. Anyway at least I’ve finally found a use for my chemical engineering background.”
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