Omaha Craft Brewery Tour

Branding a Craft Beer Adventure

In 2015, the Omaha Convention and Visitors Bureau was looking for a way to showcase their city’s flourishing craft beer scene. They created a brewery tour highlighting eight of the city’s breweries, with the goal of inspiring visitors to partake in their award-winning beer.

The geographically historical connections to Lewis and Clark — and their exploration of documenting the untold — were the keystone to the brewery tour’s branding. To promote the tour, me as part of the team at Swanson Russell, focused on the idea of ‘exploring.’ We designed materials that centered around period maps, sketches, and elements from early 19th century documents — highlighting the artisan feel and attention-to-detail that craft beer drinkers look for in their ales.

Upon signing up for the tour, the craft beer patron was given an Explorer’s Journal that introduced them to each brewery on the tour and included a coupon for a free beer at each stop. Participants could use the journal to jot down notes and rate the beers they tasted on the tour. The journal doubled as a passport and was stamped at each location. Fully stamped journals could be redeemed by the explorer and entitled them to a free Omaha Craft Beer pint glass. Additionally, a mobile app helped out-of-town visitors easily navigate to each brewery and share their experience on social media.