Birra Luca — Vapiano

The global fast casual-restaurant concept Vapiano wanted to develop a bespoke beer brand for the Swedish market to increase sales of beverages and guest count during after work-hours.The perfect match for their Italian menu was… A Danish pilsner. So how did we give a Danish pilsner an Italian sprezzatura suit?

We came up with the brand name Birra Luca. Designed logos and graphic elements for glasses, draft crowns, and merchandise with inspiration from other Italian beer legacy brands. To claim that Birra Luca is an Italian beer (not a Danish border shop-pilsner) we created a story around Luca. The beer was imported to Italy from Denmark – then smuggled from Italy to Sweden by Luca himself so that Vapiano would be able to serve their guests an “Italian smuggle beer”.

The Birra Luca pilsner has become a favorite among Vapiano’s guests where it has taken the top tier position from other more well-established Italian beer brands. Giving Vapiano an increase in both sales and profit margins.