Kiwi expats Mark Forgan and Jamie Standen create Aromatherapy in a Can for Paname Brewing Company via French agency L’Associé

As a consequence of long Covid, up to 80% of people infected by the virus have lost their sense of smell. To help them, Kiwi expats Mark Forgan and Jamie Standen, current creative directors at French communications agency L’Associé, have worked with craft brewery Paname Brewing Company to develop an exceptionally aromatic new line of beers, the first ever designed to help people with anosmia, one of the most common symptoms of COVID 19, retrain their sense of smell.

 

Founded in 2015, Paname Brewing Company’s artisanal beers are brewed in Paris and offered at its two locations as well as bars throughout the French capital. Over the last year, L’Associé has partnered with Paname Brewing Company to support its communication and marketing through the brand’s identity and its declination across points of contact (signage, area planning, packaging). Last year, the agency helped the beer brand create and market a limited edition range of beers, inspired by the emotions people were struggling with during the long months of lockdown. This year, the brand is helping people recover, with a new range of “Beer Therapy” for those still facing the effects of Covid.

Designed for beer lovers who suffer from anosmia, Paname Brewing Company’s limited edition line is directly inspired by studies on the rehabilitation of the sense of smell, which reveal that smelling a familiar scent on a regular basis can help restore the sense.

Says Forgan and Standen: “We were reading articles about scent training. The idea that you choose a favourite scent and smell it every day, to retrain your nose. And we said to ourselves, a favourite scent? Sounds like beer.”

Says Gilles Rivollier, founder of L’Associé: “Usually the brand briefs the agency, but this time it was the agency briefing the brewers. We really pushed them to make the most aromatic beers possible.”

Working with the agency, the brewers created three beers with exceptionally strong scents.

Says Forgan and Standen: “Simple instructions on the cans themselves tell the drinker to pour the beer into a glass and then inhale the aromas while imagining what they represent. That’s the idea underlying idea of scent reeducation.”

Says Michael Kennedy, co-founder of Paname Brewing Company: “Aromas are very much a part of appreciating a beer. We wanted to help. Other beer lovers get the sense of smell back, so they can enjoy all the facets a well brewed beer has to offer. Everyone can enjoy our Beer Therapy range, whether they’ve lost their sense of smell or not. The aromatic style is very popular at the moment and rightly so.”

After accepting the challenge to create these aromatic beers, the brewers at Paname Brewing Company created 3 unique flavors: DDH Session NEIPA (orchard and tropical fruit, with a touch of lemongrass), Pineapple Peach Sour Gose (pineapple and peach with a slight lemon bite) and Imperial DDH Fruit IPA (blood orange and kalamansi, with citrus and pine flavors).

Adds Rivollier: “l’Associé has a wide range of experience in the alcohol category – it was exciting this time to actually create a product ourselves.”

In addition to defining the concept, design and packaging of the limited edition line, L’Associé is deploying the rollout across Paname Brewing Company’s social networks and points of sale.

BRAND: Paname Brewing Company
Brand Management: Michael KENNEDY
Brewers: Filippo Ambrosi, Paulo Pinheiro, Baptiste Thíery, Julien Leclancher, Preston Rogosheske, Alexis Maupas

AGENCY: L’ASSOCIÉ
Founder, Director of Creation : Gilles RIVOLLIER
Creative Directors: Mark FORGAN, Jamie STANDEN
Art Director: Chloé CAMILLE
Assistant Art Director: Manon ESCARRAT
Client Director: Anne-Laure COMPAS
Account Manager: Marion TRYANT

PRODUCTION: L’ASSOCIÉ