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6 Ways Lucky Saint Broke The Rules of Great Packaging (and you can too)

6 Ways Lucky Saint Broke The Rules of Great Packaging (and you can too)

Dan Pope
October 13, 2023

Last weekend, I got caught drink driving.

I feel so much shame.

My poor Mother was sobbing, mascara-wet tears gushed down Creme De La Mere soaked cheeks as she inhaled Red.

Like a rusty dagger twisted and jolted into my chest, shame scurried around my head.

It was around 12 am.

Driving (or should I say flying hahahahahahah) down the A3.

Around 80pm.

KISSTORY blasting.

Filthy Bass line.

“wiv a littleeee bittaaa lucck, wee can makeee it thruuuu thaaa nite”

The rest is HISSTORY, mate.

Wailing and whooping blue lights-of-you’ve-been-a-naughty-boy howled in the rear view mirror.

I pulled over.

A corpulent copper-probably-called Colin waddled over.

He looked like a bored-Geography teacher who’d watched Die Hard too many times.

“Please, get out the car, sir.”

“Excuse me mate?

“It’s not a car. It’s a Batmobile.”

I looked straight into his eyes with a piercing scowl.

Whilst he was writing on his note pad.

Quickly, I slipped it out of the glove box.

I pointed it straight at his face.

He froze.

Eyes shot out his sockets like fear-drenched smacked ice hockey pucks.

Cheeks drained to dead grey colour of cardboard party plates for finger food at funerals.

Fear crawled his scalp like a thousand hungry spiders.

I gritted my teeth

*squinted my eyes

*gave a litte grrrrrrrr attitude

“You feeling LUCKY punk?”

Immediately, the copper gave a widening grin and cheeky wink 😉

An Angel or Saint came to rescue.

My Lucky Day.

My Lucky Saint.

Yes, you buffoon, I wasn’t actually booze-driving.

Was gunnin’ n chuggin’ the ol’ Lucky Saints.

One of my fave hobbies in 2023:

Drink driving around Local Police Stations. Drinking Alchy Free beers and waving at coppers.

When stopped by the Feds.

“Chill yaaaa beans fool… It’s ALCHY FREE, buddy…Now Mr. Officer, as much as I’d like to chat.. I’ve a tea party to attend… so please be on your way now”

Seriously, I was chugging back Lucky Saint on the way to a BBQ and Lucky Saint changed the rules of packaging.

How Lucky Saint Bent The Physics of Packaging (and you can too)

The issues most founders/brands face when creating STAND OUT packaging on shelf that DRIVES RATE OF SALE and TELLS A STORY>

Issue 1 - “we’ve got so many USPs… how do we prioritise our messaging hierarchy?”

Issue 2 - “we need to be super bold and stand out on shelf as our category is super crowded!!! ”

Issue 3 - “we need to keep our branding simple, yet we’ve got so many great things to talk about… which one do we put first?”

Issue 4 - “if we put all our USP’s and story on our packaging consumers become confused.. what should we do”?”

Issue 5 - “how do we make consumers feel emotional connection through our packaging and get them to buy the product?”

Issue 6 - “how do we tell a story with less space than a borrowers bungalow ?”

LUCKY SAINT have done some Inception Wizzardy on their packaging.

I believe great packaging works on two fronts

FROM A FAR = 5 meters from a shelf edge.
UP CLOSE = when the product is in your hand.

Most brands mess up because they only think about packaging in ONE context i.e. from up close or from a far.

The real genius, like Lucky Saint, is marrying both close up and from a far . Getting them to dance together.

LUCKY SAINT FROM A FAR GENIUS

Every single brand has their typography horizontal. Look at the above packaging of all the AF beer brands. All horizontal. Lucky Saint made theirs vertical = automatically stand out on shelf.

The Main Logo is HUGE and from a far the packaging looks super, simple, bold and stand out.

But…

LUCKY SAINT UP CLOSE GENIUS

When you hold the Lucky Saint can, it’s a rich tapestry of storytelling and USPs.

The typography of copy is SUPER SUPER small, genius because:

Gives you more space to work with i.e. tell you story and shout out your USPs. BUT still stands out from A FAR.
Doesn’t create confusing packaging with too many messages, leaving the consumer confused and not knowing where to look.

Let’s dig into the genius copy on pack

“Lucky Saint is born of Bavarian spring water, pilsner malt, hallertau hops and our own single-use yeast. Discover biscuity malts and a smooth, citrus Hop Finish.”

Bavarian spring water.

Rory Sutherland Packaging Law: Sushi from Somalia or Salford rule.

Provenance AUTOMATICALLY makes your brand taste better.

Lucky Saint tastes better using Bavarian Spring Water.

Imagine if they said Romford or Milton Keynes Spring Water…. ok mate?

David Gluckman Packaging Law: “Your packaging is your best salesman” and “use taste descriptive, emotive words to shift product on shelf”

“Discover biscuity malts and a smooth, citrus Hop Finish”

Biscuity and smooth = taste descriptive words = emotion = People buy with emotion and justify with logic.

Progressively crafted with over 400 years of proud brewing heritage, we leave our beer unfiltered for maximum flavour”

400 years of brewing. Stories Sell. Facts Tell

How Lucky Saint Broke the Rules of Packaging and you can too…

Changing the orientation of typography i.e. horizontal vs. vertical
Changing the size of typography to create more space to tell your story i.e. big vs. small
Start thinking of your packaging in two plains: from a far and up close

Some more lessons from Lucky Saint…

Lessons from Luke Boase, Lucky Saint founder

Been Lucky to interview two Saintly Gents from Lucky Saint on the poddy. Founder, Luke Boase and my great friend, Aaron Duffet.

Here’s some other lessons to mull over.

Luke Episode:

“Entrepreneurship is getting comfortable with the feeling that everything is falling apart at the same time”

A-fucking-men.

“Keep the Main Thing, The Main Thing”

Focus, Dan.

“Only Do The Thing, Only You Can Do”

What feels like play to you, but looks like work to others?

Do that.

Lessons from Aaron Duffet, Director of On Trade

My great pal, Aaron Duffet also came on the podcast.

Duff gave a slam-dunk in sales strategy.

1. How Lucky Saint Sell Incrementality to the On Trade - The Power of the Non-Drinker and it’s Ripple Effect

Incrementally.

Everyone loves it.

Not everyone gets it.

Sometimes, it’s well confusing? what does it actually mean? How do we sell incrementality to retailers?

Our survey says: it’s IncreMENTAL Incre-bloody-MENTAL hahahahahahahahahaha.

Anyhoo, Duff gives a sales masterclass on how to drive incrementality.

Listen closely. Make copious notes. I did.

2. How To Unlock The Chains: Indies >Multi-Regional Groups > National Retail Group - “All are Worth their Weight in Gold”

The power of sequential distribution.

Distribution and brand building is a puzzle.

Zoom out and see the bigger picture.

Realise all distribution are worth their weight in gold.

All should be give as much love as possible.

Yes volumes at Selfridges and Planet Organic will be small, but they’re great brand building accounts and sequentially they’re your case study for Waitrose or Ocado.

“All are Worth their Weight in Gold”.

Yes, volumes at The Standard Hotel are tiny.

But the brand building and gravitas from being in The Standard, sequentially lays the foundations to unlock a Fullers listing.

See the distribution puzzle from 10,000 feet. You realise “all are worth their weight in gold”

Right, I’m locked and loaded with a case of of Heineken 0%.

Off to 100% terrorise the Walton-On-Thames Police Station.

Whilst, I’ve got you… I’d be soooooooo grateful if you may please forward this email on to a few people or use our groovy referral programme.

Ta Ta bonvoyage

Have a wonderful weekend,

Popey xx

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