The Carlsberg Group in Asia further expanded their footprint in the premium craft beer segment last month with the launch of Luang Prabang beer. A new craft beer brand developed by Bangkok-based brand design agency Square44.

The design agency, well-known for various very significant (re-)branding success stories in the alcohol space in Asia, earlier helped manage the 2018 brand extension that helped Beerlao enter the premium craft beer space.

Following this collaboration the Square44 team have again combined forces to launch a new craft beer brand, Luang Prabang. The brand is named after the well-known city in Laos and UNESCO world heritage site and is a crisp and refreshing lager beer – perfect for the tropical climate of the Southeast Asian nation.

Square44 were given a brief to create a brand around the name Luang Prabang, drawing inspiration from the unique famous sights around the town.

“It was great fun and very exciting, to work with the team at Carlsberg, to develop this fantastic new brand. We had a fairly open brief, where only the name Luang Prabang was fixed and we had relative freedom to develop not just the design of the brand, but as well collateral material around the brand, creating a rich visual identity that travels beyond the pack itself” comments Mathijs Aliet, owner and founder of the agency.

“We had our team do a deep-dive into the unique characteristics of the city and when we settled on a concept direction that was centered around a romanticized, vintage depiction of the brand, we engaged a famous local artist to help us draw up the main visual on the label itself. Adding the craft of art, to the art of craft!”

Local Lao artist Hongsa was commissioned to paint unique street scenes for the Luang Prabang beer label

“What makes this beer extra special is that our design partners at Square44, collaborated with Khotsouvanh Hongsa, one of our finest local painters, to produce this stunning artist edition that truly captures the essence of this magnificent town” ads Henrik Andersen, Managing Director of The Lao Brewing Company.

Hongsa, a famous Luang Prabang-based artist, with a unique water paint-based drawing style, was the perfect candidate to add authenticity to the label. His 1920s street scene painting features the sacred mount Phou Si and the similar-named temple, adorning the top of the mountain, shown in the background. Anyone familiar with Luang Prabang, knows it is a famous landmark of the town.

In 2018 the team at Square44 developed and launched a range of 3 variants for Beerlao, positioned at a 20% price premium versus the core lager. The range consisted of a White Lager, a Hoppy Lager and an Amber Lager at the time of launch.

Fast forward to 2021, the craft range is still extremely successful. With the addition of a Dark Lager and an IPA, Beerlao keeps rotating variants, to continue momentum and excitement over the brand extension.

The craft range is now also widely available outside of Laos and a true export success story for the brand.

Luang Prabang beer was launched Early of May this year.