Taking Joseph Holt’s award-winning lager for a Spin

Spin Doctor had been around for over a decade, but sales were low, and Joseph Holt had even considered delisting the lager. But it's a great and flavoursome tipple, and after a Gold Medal win at the prestigious International Brewing Awards, Joseph Holt decided a relaunch and rebrand was needed to show it some much needed love.

A branded pint of Spin Doctor lager sitting on a bar mat that reads

Our name, Spin Doctor, was a real gift. Political spin doctors twist the truth and play with boundaries of fact and fiction, so this inspired our thinking. What made this idea all the more appealing was that the lager itself needed absolutely no overhype or exaggeration. We wanted to magnify that tension and inject some playful irreverence with some properly crafted storytelling. Spin Doctor Lager: Truth Brewed in Every Sip.

A stack of Spin Doctor promotional newspapers by Joseph Holt lying on a wooden floor, featuring mock headlines about a UFO pigeon sighting and other playful stories.

A person holding a Spin Doctor lager in a branded pint glass next to a stack of Spin Doctor newspapers on a wooden pub table, with the headline

The main weapon in any spin doctor’s arsenal is, of course, the media. So we looked to the world of print media for inspiration for our rebrand: Tabloid inspired typography, ripped paper edges, and a CMYK colour palette inspired by the registration marks you find in the margins of most newspapers. It enabled us to craft a suite of distinctive brand assets, which felt eye catching and instantly recognisable in a busy pub setting, and which had brand storytelling baked in.

A wooden newspaper rack displaying multiple copies of the Spin Doctor promotional newspaper with the headline

Two people with tattooed arms holding pints of Spin Doctor lager in branded glasses at a pub, with one reading the Spin Doctor newspaper featuring a classifieds section and an advert reading

We wanted a brand with depth, and it needed to be much more than just an aesthetic. So, to bring the rebrand to life, we painstakingly penned and designed an extremely funny/silly parody newspaper.

In a world of fake news and extraordinary exaggeration, nobody is sure what to believe anymore. We wanted to lean into that scepticism by building a world of nonsense around a very real, award-winning product – which needs no embellishment whatsoever. The newspaper features headline news stories, sports articles, lonely hearts, classifieds, a very unhelpful weather report and some hilarious fake ads.

Scattered pages of the Spin Doctor promotional newspaper featuring mock headlines like

We also brought the new brand to life across iconic beer pumps, pint glasses, beer mats, and bar runners - ensuring a lasting, eye-catching presence within Joseph Holt’s pubs.