Understanding the difference between craft beer and independent craft beer just got a whole lot easier, with peak independent brewing body, the Independent Brewers Association (IBA) launching an awareness campaign aimed at ensuring consumers can quickly and easily identify what beer is made by Australia’s independent brewers.

A new campaign, ‘Behind every great Aussie indie’ has been designed to explain exactly what independence means, to tell the stories behind the beer and to provide information on how and where to find it.

For much of the past decade in Australia the term ‘craft beer’ served its purpose well. It referred to small, local breweries passionately committed to brewing a wider variety of beer styles than the mainstream offerings.

In the last few years, however, larger multinational breweries have increasingly been developing their own craft brands or acquiring successful smaller independent brewers so the need to differentiate is now more important than ever.

The IBA provides consumers with an easy way to identify and support their local brewer by asking them to look for the Independent Seal the next time they are in a bottle shop, venue or shopping online. Or if they can’t find a beer with a Seal – to ask for one, so they generate demand and independent brewers get more access to vital distribution points.

CEO of the IBA, Kylie Lethbridge talked about the purpose of the organisation. “We provide a united voice for independently-owned brewers across Australia, working with government agencies, industry stakeholders, trade and media to represent the interests of the 600+ Australian independent brewers who are part of our community.”

Consumer research undertaken by KPMG showed that being part of the community and locally owned mattered to Australians, and the increase in sophistication of the beer drinker means Aussie indies are well-placed to capture this audience given the range of styles produced and the flavour profiles offered.

“We are really trying to creating a consumer-based social movement to drive further understanding of what being independent really means.

We made the decision to create the Independent Seal so beer lovers could easily and quickly identify what is made by Australian owned brewers,” Lethbridge continued. “But as the landscape of craft brewing has changed over the last decade we are now faced with more competition than ever.

Without the budgets of global organisations, to compete we need to find a way to engage with the consumer directly, to build a relationship with them and to start the process of creating an understanding of what the seal of independence actually means. We want them to build an emotional connection with these family-owned, community-driven, sustainability-oriented, local businesses.”

IBA members can use the Seal on packaging, marketing collateral, websites, tap handles, menus and the new campaign is supported by #askforindiebeer as the key call to action,” Kylie said.

“As we emerge from the last few challenging years research tells us consumers are more concerned about supporting small and local over larger, global players. We see the Independent Seal and the “Behind every great Aussie Indie” campaign offering beer lovers a simpler way to do that,” she added.

“We are also excited by how LOUD, our agency partner created this campaign using independent artists – both visual and musical. It’s great that our work is supporting exceptional Australian artists. These are values that resonate with ours and I think, makes this campaign extra special,” she concluded.

Details about the Seal can be found here: https://iba.org.au/Public/Public/The-Seal/TheSeal-Info.aspx?hkey=83dc8033-3e87-4dd4-86fb-3eb98f6a9423 and for everything about the beer and where to find the 430+ breweries around the country visit https://askforindiebeer.com.au/