Rachel Keeton, marketing director, discusses reviving the Project Pabst music festival, returning to growth, and drawing on the passion of PBR fans
It’s been more than 20 years since hipsters in Portland, Oregon embraced Pabst Blue Ribbon as a favorite beer brand. Ironic or not, it fed an association with alternative culture and the arts that the venerable beer brand has continued to embrace today.
This summer, Pabst is reviving Project Pabst, a two-day, two-stage music festival in Portland featuring era-spanning alternative artists including Big Thief, Denzel Curry, the Violent Femmes and T-Pain. It’s a lineup made to match the wide demographic and independent mindset of today’s Pabst drinker, said Rachel Keeton, marketing director of Pabst Brewing, speaking on the latest episode of Ad Age’s Marketer’s Brief podcast.
The hipster association “really ties back to the brand itself, it’s always kind of stood up for this independent, do-it-yourself attitude and spirit,” Keeton said. “And whether that’s our consumers, or the partners or bands that we work with, they all kind of have that same mindset and attitude. And so we just try to stay true to that and continue leaning into it, and showing up in culture in those ways.”
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