Deschutes Debuts New Brand Campaign

Deschutes Brewery, a family and employee-owned brewery based in the Northwest since 1988, announced the release of a new brand campaign that reminds cannabis craving consumers not to forget about the region’s original social recreation, craft beer. The “It Comes with The Territory” campaign, which features digital films, radio, and out of home advertising, highlights the brewery’s iconic place in the region and continues a new marketing approach for Deschutes that began earlier this year with a packaging redesign.

“This campaign celebrates not only our humor and creativity but our Pacific Northwest roots. It’s a way to reaffirm and honor our heritage and ignite our future in craft beer,” said Gary Fish, Deschutes Brewery’s founder.

Deschutes Brewery, a pioneer in the industry, set the standards high for the craft beer movement and thinks of themselves as one of the quintessential beers of the Pacific Northwest. In the video launching the campaign, Deschutes uses symbolic images accompanied by Louie Louie, the classic song recorded by the iconic Oregon band The Kingsmen, to capture the true spirit of its home.

The campaign also calls out a growing pressure between craft beer and cannabis. Using a unique creative positioning through video and radio, Deschutes proclaims itself as “The beer of choice in the land of recreational cannabis.” While the cannabis industry is growing at an unprecedented rate in the Northwest, Deschutes acknowledges its relationship with craft beer, increasingly sharing a consumer with recreational cannabis, a consumer that loves a diversity of experiences. Deschutes is relentlessly innovating, crafting new beers in new styles for every occasion.

“We’re drawing attention to the healthy tension between craft beer and cannabis and proving that the two industries, which some may think are competitive can play nice with each other if consumed responsibly,” said Deschutes Brewery’s VP of Marketing Neal Stewart. “Legalized recreational cannabis is a reality that craft brewers are facing in this region. People are going to enjoy recreational cannabis, but we want to remind them that this is still one of, if not the best place on Earth to enjoy a beer and Deschutes helped put the craft brewing industry on the map.”

In commenting on the creative inspiration for this campaign, Mark Fitzloff, founder and executive creative director of Opinionated said, “We felt that for Deschutes to humorously call out the fact that recreational cannabis has become such a part of the region, would be a brave way to assert its insider knowledge and leadership position in the Northwest.”

Opinionated was appointed Agency of Record for the Deschutes brand in February of 2019 and created the digital films, radio and OOH for the brand.