There are so many accolades and awards in the beer world - medallions, titles, little gold wreaths – that nothing stands out anymore. So how could we launch Monteith’s new APA in a way that got it recognised far above all of its competitors?

To launch new Monteith’s Patriot APA, we petitioned the U.S. Embassy for the greatest piece of recognition an American Pale Ale could hope for – the official U.S. seal itself.

Directly targeting the U.S. Embassy in New Zealand allowed us to create a high profile, nationwide conversation about the new Monteith’s APA. We used every media channel to amplify our request for the U.S. Seal and empowered our fans to join in on the action.

The campaign was designed to be highly responsive and nimble, allowing us to react to any response the Embassy gave us – further fuelling the idea.

The campaign launched with an open negotiation directed at the U.S. Embassy in Wellington - the closest America we could find.

We asked for the seal via a billboard outside the embassy, full-page letters in the newspaper, radio addresses, an aeroplane banner, a social campaign, and an extensive website – all of which were personally addressed to the U.S. Embassy in the hopes of getting approval to use the seal on our APA.

The Embassy noticed, as did New Zealand. And it wasn’t long before the action escalated from print into a nation-wide online debate.

The U.S. Embassy responded by email, formally declining our request. While we didn’t get the official U.S. seal, we got the country-wide recognition we needed to cement our place in the category.

The campaign fuelled online discussion in other channels, generating 4.5 million media impressions. The Monteith’s Patriot was the #1 APA launch in New Zealand. And the Monteith’s brand is now growing at 11.3%.

Better yet, once the campaign was over, we received a letter asking Monteith’s to supply the beer for the Embassy’s 4th of July celebrations. If that’s not approval, we don’t know what is.