Our fourth celebration of the latest CoolBrands list from Superbrands shines the spotlight on Dutch beer-maker Grolsch.  The company already has a strong reputation for producing innovative digital content tailored specifically to its audience, and is continuing its Gosch! Taste Amplified campaign with the introduction of two key partnerships with Lonely Planet & Time Out.

Grolsch and its digital agency Blonde are set to extend last year’s focus on the ‘richer experience’ this month with a new interactive banner concept that will be placed on both publications’ sites, before launching a new website for the brand.

“Lonely Planet and Time Out were both really open to innovation, so we’ve created banners that integrate with the content when you click them. It’s based around a competition format, so when you click, buttons are shown across the site that allow you to build your own dream trip. You can print it as an itinerary and share – but also then submit to win it as well,” said Pete Burns, Managing Director of Blonde Digital.

For Grolsch, 2009’s efforts were all about generating awareness of the new swing-top cap on its beer bottles. In conjunction with huge investment in outdoor work, it was important that the digital component reflected the quirky nature of the brand’s roots. These new activities however, are more about a continuation of marrying the “quirky, Dutch nature of Grolsch” with the premium aspect of the brand, according to Burns.

David Griffiths, UK Brand Director for Grolsch also talked to us about the importance of digital within the company’s communications strategy. “It’s the perfect channel to get people really engaged with the brand. We’ve been recruiting people on a local basis, putting names into a database by running promotions and online ads. You can also become a Grolsch Insider via the website – which to date has resulted in 2 million registrations and an opt- in of 50%. That’s a core group of people that are actively interested in the things that we do.”

As well as allowing Grolsch to highlight key behavourial aspects of its consumers for higher profile website takeovers and wraps, this information has been used to create some of the more niche activities in the Taste Amplified campaign. A prime example of which would be the banner created for Resident Advisor – the dance & electronic music magazine –  which allowed users to mix together up to 42 samples of super-relevant music .

The second part of the Taste Amplified activity in 2010 is the launch of a new site, which will also reflect the behaviour of the Grolsch community by understanding and tracking content that’s been viewed, using that to shape what’s shown next. It also has the capacity to alter content based on tagged links, which allows Grolsch to build content dynamically based on referrer URLs if needs be. The backdrop will be full screen video, further enhancing the experience and allowing some of the personality of the brand to shine through in a very obvious way.

As with so many other brands that get it right in the digital space, Grolsch first tries to understand its customer at a behaviour-based level, and target these niche audiences with both mainstream communication – as well as more relevant, niche activity. This mixture ensures that Grolsch’s reputation as a premium brand with a twist is met on both levels; new drinkers that might see the higher profile sponsorships and be drawn in, and existing customers that are satisfied that the brand understands what they want.