The no- and low-alcohol category is pretty obsessed with – well – alcohol. On mimicking it, militantly cutting out, or calling out all the things it stops us from doing. You’ll have seen campaigns asking us to unwind without hangxiety. One LinkedIn user remarked that Elon Musk’s Head of Comms probably has an easier job than an alcohol marketer in Dry Jan.
 

When establishing a new category, businesses often lead with education on product itself. We know driverless cars first and foremost to be driverless; no and low beverages contain little to no alcohol. When the non-alcoholic spirit Seedlip launched, the genius of their one-liner was its simplicity: what to drink when you’re not drinking.
 

But once you've got product-market fit, businesses need to move from talking only about what their product is (or indeed isn’t), to what their brand believes. The reason some dry January campaigns feel a little – er – dry this year, is because the category has moved on. It’s no longer enough to stand against alcohol; you need to stand for something else. Eventually, Seedlip became a world-building brand centred on the art of nature.
 

The team behind the low-alcohol beer LOAH knew this when they approached Sonder & Tell last year. They needed to be more than a replacement drink for their curious customers. And so we built a brand that placed people in a state of mind opened by flavour, creativity and inspiration –  not alcohol. One that felt like a mind-expanding conversation with a beer in the sun.

We called it blue-sky drinking. And we created a brand world with scope for fresh collaborations – from working with illustrators to partnering with Shoreditch Design Triangle. It’s informed their redesign, and importantly it’s given the team permission to enter new creative conversations. Because no one wants to hear about a hangover.

The space of low-no alcohol beer has a very brand conscious customer, and now more than ever, people are looking for moderate options. This means there are a lot of opportunities to explore, but there’s also a stigma to break: drinking a no- or low-alcohol beer means sacrificing quality or flavour.

We spoke with William Hedley, LOAH’s co-founder, about the importance of listening to what customers want, the impact ‘blue-sky drinking’ had on their business, the celebrities he thinks reflect LOAH’s personality, and more.