Brewdog Wingman Visualisation: Use of Technology

Brewdog came to award-wining CGI agency, Where Giants Roam, ahead of their latest large-scale product launch for Wingman. This Session IPA featured a different look to existing Brewdog beers, including a detailed illustration of a Top Gun-esque bird – your wingman. The marketing team needed an activation content concept that would be as disruptive online as the artwork is on shelf, and enlisted Where Giants Roam to produce an AR-style animation that would be truly scroll stopping. This guerilla marketing concept needed to align with the always-rebellious spirit of the Brewdog team, and sit within the trend of almost-unbelievable brand activations.

Collaborating with the Brewdog team, the core concept brought forwards was a life-sized, can-shaped hot air balloon, being skillfully piloted underneath the iconic scene of Tower Bridge opening. After capturing the raw, hand-held footage, Where Giants Roam considered every detail – from the specifics of hot air balloon modelling, the scale in comparison to the bridge, the sun angle from the footage and even the water motion and pilots. This resulted in an uber-realistic piece of content, ready to be released with the goal of causing its’ audience to truly double take.

The reaction was better than expected – with over 5.85 million accounts reached on Instagram, 17.4 thousand engagements from users, making it the most viewed piece of content on the whole of Brewdog’s Instagram. Where Giants Roam pride themselves on the photorealism of their work, and this content was particularly well-suited to their skillset, causing viewers to question whether the event had actually taken place or not. Through manipulation of the CGI in this product, the Where Giants Roam team were able to directly impact the engagement of what is currently the most engaged video of the year on Brewdog’s Instagram alone – without factoring in the traction gained acrross various other platforms.