Heaps Normal secures spot on GABS Hottest 100 list for second year in a row
Heaps Normal made it onto the GABS Hottest 100 list for the second time in a row.
The announcement:
For the second year in a row, Heaps Normal was the only non-alcoholic beer to rank on GABS competitive Hottest 100 list of the nation’s top craft beers.
Heaps Normal’s award-winning Quiet XPA came in at #32 on this year’s list, going one better than its #33 ranking last year, and – unbelievably – securing the exact ranking it campaigned for throughout December and January.
GABS Hottest 100 is the Australian craft beer community’s version of Triple J’s iconic countdown of the same name. Nabbing a spot on the list can catapult a craft beer producer’s sales for the year and give them enviable bragging rights. Voting for GABS is open to the public and there is no way to secure a certain number of votes or a specific ranking.
Heaps Normal’s #32 campaign aimed to have some fun with the brand’s ambition to make a modest gain of just one spot closer to the top spot on GABS Hottest 100. The campaign put the spotlight on a series of legendary cultural and sporting figures who were connected to the number 32, like Shaquille O’Neal’s iconic #32 jersey, Mozart’s 32 mature piano sonatas, Talking Heads Psycho Killer nabbing the #32 spot in Triple J’s first ever Hottest 100 and Katie Deleckey’s ranking as the #32 most powerful female athlete of all time.
The campaign speaks to Heaps Normal’s broader brand messaging of ‘just doing your best’, which it’s leveraged to become the country’s most popular indie non-alc beer brand. Heaps Normal’s marketing director Tim Snape says he couldn’t believe the brand’s crusade to secure the #32 spot in GABS Hottest 100 list for the year actually resulted in that exact outcome.
“Our #32 campaign was a tongue-in-cheek campaign that speaks to our broader brand values around just doing your best – having one less alcoholic beverage on a night out, or swapping your first knock-off of the week to a non-alc option – rather than aiming too high and then beating yourself up when you can’t do the month-long sobriety challenge, for example,” says Snape.
“Still, given the GABS rankings are impossible to predict or manipulate, this is some serious marketing serendipity at play.”
Heaps Normal is now stocked at more than 7,000 retailers and venues around Australia. Heaps Normal’s original, award-winning non-alc brew, the Quiet XPA, tastes like a delicious, refreshing beer. Tropical and citrus aroma with a lingering and unmistakably beery finish. Unfiltered, with balanced bitterness and a subtle malt sweetness, reminiscent of your old pals. Its accolades now include:
● GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beers 2023 – #32 (and the only non-alc beer on the list)
● GABS Hottest 100 Craft Beers 2022 – #33 (and the only non-alc beer on the list)
● World Beer Awards 2022 — World’s Best No & Low Alcohol Pale
● World Beer Awards 2021 — ‘Country Winner’ (Australia), ‘No and Low-Alcohol’ category
Source: Character + Distinction
