BIG ROCK CHANGES MARKETING SHIFT
By Adnews Staff
Big Rock Brewery of Calgary has decided to plunge deeper into the advertising game, but hasn't completely ironed out its plans yet. The craft brewer hired Parallel Strategies of Calgary last week to handle its advertising. The agency won the business after a competition with two other agencies. Until now, Big Rock focused its marketing efforts on local events and sponsorships handled in-house. It has also hired agencies on a project basis. The company decided to hire an agency now because there is more competition in the market and Big Rock wants to "turn things up a notch," general manager Andrew Jones told Adnews this week. Big Rock is still in the preliminary stages of planning its marketing initiatives, but Jones said the brewer would continue with its special events and sponsorships. Big Rock beer is known as being "non-commercial and non-mainstream" and the company wants to keep it that way Jones said. Jones recently joined Big Rock as general manager. Most recently he was national distribution and sales manager at Illy Espresso Canada Inc. Janine Calb is now at Big Rock as marketing and communications manager. Previously she was a marketing specialist at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. Big Rock markets nine brands of beer including: Traditional, Grasshopper Wheat Ale, Chinook Pale Ale Magpie Rye Ale and McNally's Extra Irish Ale. The beer is sold in the Alberta and Ontario markets.