KONA BIG WAVE

LIQUID
ALOHA

Kona Big Wave doesn’t have any brand equity. Hawaii has decades of emotional equity. We poured that feeling into every Big Wave.

Brand awareness for Anheuser-Busch’s Kona Big Wave sits at 56%. But this darling from Hawaii has its eyes set on playing with the big dogs in the lifestyle import beer space as it continues to grow on the mainland. It’s Hawaii in a bottle, capturing real, raw, lived-in Hawaii and not touristy beaches like its competitor Corona. 

While beer sales declined industry-wide during the campaign launch year, Kona Big Wave grew 2.4%. 

    

Our hand models got absolutely drenched in beer for two 12-hour days in a row. And I wrote some fun headlines without bathing in beer first.




 
Did we actually build a beach bar on set? Yes. Did the crew start tearing it down before the clients got a picture of themselves sitting there? Yes... oops.

 
Our director was very into sharks and cut this shark story told by one of our talent at the bonfire.


A lot of late nights went into this campaign. On one of them, my art director accidentally generated an AI cat in Photoshop.

Made at Duncan Channon.