Redesign Sapporo’s tap handle to fit with the overall Legendary Biru brand idea to help expand the brand’s appeal beyond Sushi restaurants. Leverage the iconic imagery and elements of Japanese culture that were so fascinating to our target – and that we had used in creating the mythical tour through a Legendary Sapporo brewery in all the other campaign elements.We developed the idea of a Samurai Katana tap handle in initial creative development – and consumers went crazy for it in testing. “If you make that, I will try that beer” was pretty much the universal response.

The final solution was the best combination of materials to deliver authenticity and realism while managing costs.The Sapporo Katana tap handle did end up costing more (on-average) than traditional tap handles – but the impact on consumers and sales make it one of the most effective elements of the overall Legendary Biru campaign.

The Katana tap handle was an effective tool for driving Sapporo in bars. Sales in bars that had the Katana tap handle design were 45% higher than bars which had Sapporo’s old tap handle.We produced a limited first run of the tap handles to test response. Response was so strong the Sapporo sales team had to manage bar owners who were disappointed they didn’t receive the initial allotment and we ended up doing 3 additional product runs to meet demand.Based on this success the Katana Tap Handle was picked up for use in the US in 2011.