'Advertising's only a small part of it': Lucky Saint's marketing director on breaking the rules

It’s not just the Rankin-photographed black and white saint with her hands clasped in prayer that has made low-alcohol beer Lucky Saint famous… although being both visually captivating and situated across London’s tube network have given it a boost.

Like all good photography, there’s a real story behind the iconic image. In this case, it’s the brand’s undying focus on the sanctity of experience emphasised in the beautifully simple copy: ‘Drink Religiously.’

Founded in 2018 by Luke Boase, Lucky Saint’s philosophy is : “fortune favours the brave (and the hardworking)”. And the approach has worked – it is now the largest dedicated alcohol-free brand in the UK having received a record £10 million investment in 2023.

Divine intervention it isn't, but every year the Saint delivers – and it’s not just creatives lusting over the stylish out-of-home: Lucky Saint was named Brand of the Year in 2023 by The Marketing Society, and is now available on tap in over 10000 pubs and bars across the country, including 1200 on tap.

The achievements come despite a tough market – on average each month more than 34 pubs shut last year, which marked the sharpest fall since 2021.

Its availability on tap, and in stylish bottles, has been key to the brand’s attraction to the growing number of zebra stripers (who might intersperse an alcoholic drink with a non-alcoholic drink or drink one pub trip but not the next).

Leading the charge, and ensuring its success across all avenues, is marketing director Kerttu Inkeroinen who has been in the job since 2022. Having graduated in Finland, she looked abroad when she first searched for opportunities and landed on the prestigious Kimberly-Clark graduate scheme. There she took on brands like Kleenex, Andrex and Huggies, before joining Coca-Cola as a brand manager.

Since then, she has excelled in the scale-up and challenger world, with a seven-year stint at Union Hand-Roasted Coffee before joining Lucky Saint.

And one of Inkeroinen’s favourite things about her current role is the brand’s focus on genuine connection: “There’s no substitute to physically experiencing and tasting the brand. So we focus a lot on sampling and distribution. It’s centred on the cultural, connection that people have to pubs as the social hub”.

Less than ten years on from its inception, in a highly tough UK economy, especially for challenger brands (take the exit of Liquid Death), the brand’s success just continues. Sales increased 30 per cent on a value basis and 22 per cent ona volume basis in March 2024 versus the same period in 2023.

But what is it that has kept the brand on such an upward trajectory?

Key to the brand’s success is its propensity to break the rules. Aside from the monastic heritage of beer brewing, Inkeroinen says the name is surprising: “Lucky and Saint are two words that don’t really go together”. She adds that the concept aims “ to create that friction and get people to notice”.

“We try to reflect this in our marketing by doing something a little bit unexpected with the creative. One of our mantras is ‘breaking rules, honouring traditions’ and the breaking rules part is about what we can do differently in the beer category”.

Beyond Dry January

Firstly it hasn’t tried to mimic other alcohol-free options (many of which are owned by major alcohol brands) and has used that to take up relevant space in niche areas.

Not only is Lucky Saint one of Alcohol Change UK’s official Dry January partners – last month the brand’s “Thou Shalt Go To The Pub” campaign emphasised the role of the pub within  social occasions. The business gave away 100,000 free pints in participating pubs and called on people not to skip socialising during their January health kick.

But the business has always sought to become far more than a Dry January alternative for pubgoers. Over five years into its mission, the brand has its own pub which it uses for events and meetings, and has sponsored sporting events. For example, at the Hackney Half Marathon Lucky Saint activated with thirst billboards around the borough and a mist station to cool runnners down – as well as beers at the finish line.

And Inkeroinen’s latest act with Lucky Saint is a partnership with British Airways which will see the drink made available on all its flights from Heathrow.

Inkeroinen explains that the experience-led approach the brand has taken is far more than just a gimmick: “I always think advertising is only a small part of it and actually the key is to deliver a great tasting product in a way that people want to enjoy it and give people a great brand experience along the way”.

She adds that its challenger and alcohol-free status has allowed it to draw in more active participants in events, unlike most beer advertising which can only focus on those who are viewing. The same logic has allowed Lucky Saint to be in the Sainsbury’s meal deal.

“Non-alcoholic beers which are owned by beer brands that also sell alcohol can’t play in this space,” Inkeroinen explains.

“If you look at how you want to position a challenger brand, it is often that you are against something. It would have been an easier, natural position for us to be against alcohol and against drinking but that’s something we’re very conscious of. We decided not to do that because of our audience. We do not want to be telling people that drinking alcohol is bad or make people feel bad about it. That’s probably an area that often bubbles up as an area for execution but that we consciously stay away from”, she adds.

A focus on garnering the right attention has also played out in the brand’s strategy to place its  adverts across the tube network: “The London Underground is one of the most effective ways to capture a London audience. You can create what I like to call surround sound – that is when you are in the sphere you feel like we’re everywhere. The London Underground is a great place to create that because you can make sure that people will see your advertising more than once during their journey”.

Post-Christmas, it also had placements on the sides of buses and at train stations, which Inkeroinen says aimed to capture people’s attention as they were heading back after over-indulging. The religious tone comes into effect here – some might see it as a timely form of deliverance.

Will the Saint continue to intercede?

While she wasn’t there for the original brief, Inkeroinen has a great deal of affection for the business’s famed and evolving out-of-home. Originally launched in 2019, the Saint was created by Kamarama and Rankin and featured a biblical quote 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking who he may devour”.

“It’s a lofty ambition for us but the idea was to create something that goes back to 90s beer advertising, something that’s quite different from the more lifestyle photography that a lot of beer brands create. Black and white isn’t something that you often see in out-of-home, or beer advertising.”

Inkeroinen is very aware that the best brands occasionally need to pivot, “If something doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean you have to stick to what’s been said from the beginning”.

Although she adds that the business hasn’t made any decision about how long to keep the Saint but says that  it is  aims to create something that can live on in different forms over the years.

“We’re very much here to build an aspirational brand in its own right with personality and leaning into the moment you’re drinking and tasting the beerand enjoying that moment – without the downsides”. 

She adds that there’s not much point in a copy-line to a brand that doesn’t live it in the everyday execution, “You can only really see how platforms work over time and they only really get stronger over time”.

Inkeroinen’s experiences working at Kimberly-Clark and Coca-Cola showed her how powerful assets like the Andrex puppy or Kleenex’s blue couch from its ‘Let It Out’ platform, can be. They also taught her the importance of longevity and leaving an asset better than you found it.

“You understand that you’re a caretaker of the brand while you’re there, but you need to look 100 years ahead. Even if you’re a young challenger brand you should also think of longer-term ambition and ask yourself what you want people to think of the brand in 2050,” she adds.

That doesn’t seem like such a lofty ambition for Lucky Saint.

With demand for no-and-low alcohol brands on the rise (this market is expected to grow to as much as £800 million by 2028), and it has certainly captured drinkers holy enough to crave an independent option.

The world according to Kerttu Inkeroinen

What are your favourite brand platforms?

I think Yorkshire Tea is brilliant – especially the way they’ve executed ‘Done Properly’ over the years. Heinz’s ‘It’s Got To Be Heinz’ – I think there are so many brilliant showcases for how brands can really make communications and marketing more impactful

What advice would you give to an aspiring CMO who has just started a new role?

Take full advantage of the early days when you can still see the category and your brand with fresh eyes. Engage with consumers, immerse yourself in the market and truly understand its key drivers. Then, dive deep into your brand’s history and story. Avoid the temptation to overhaul everything just to make your mark; instead, build on existing foundations, strengthening the brand over time with a strategic, long-term approach.

What motivates you as a marketer?

What I’m really passionate about is consistency. You can refresh the way you bring the brand to market but keeping that consistency year after year is really important.

What metrics are most important in your role?

Revenue growth and market share are the ultimate indicators of success. We also closely track brand awareness, consideration, and brand affinity as key measures of marketing effectiveness. We utilize platforms like Savanta BrandVue, which provides real-time data on brand performance. We combine this with ‘old tech’ and also do old fashioned consumer calling within our marketing team, which is a great way to add a qualitative lens to numbers and keep close to consumers.

What is the biggest challenge faced by brands?

For smaller brands, the age-old challenge remains: achieving a strong share of voice with limited budgets. Established brands with dominant media spend tend to grow their market share, so challenger brands must constantly find ways to maximise their impact. This is becoming even more complex with the ongoing fragmentation of media channels.