Black Douglas & Cola

The Black Douglas is Asahi’s leading value-priced Scotch Whisky brand in Australia. Asahi wanted to increase the brand’s strength with a design that was both more eye-catching as well as more contemporary and premium. Evolution of the brand was necessary because of the rusted-on consumer base, but enhancement of the brand’s DBAs.

The brand was named after the legendary Scottish knight and feudal lord James Douglas AKA “The blak Dowglas”. The new cross symbol was both an evolution of the previous crossed swords as well as reference to the St Andrews cross on the Scottish flag. The filagree within the cross was inspired by early medieval patterns of the time of Douglas’ reign, and adds another level of premiumness.

On the bottle, the secondary asset of the coat of arms was retained but revised to work in a solid foil and to have more standout. A new monogram “TBD” was developed to add traditional premium cues. The ‘Sir’ was removed so that his signature felt more authentic, and his dates included to add to the brand’s storytelling.

The RTD Black Douglas and Coke takes the primary asset of the cross and blows it up large - wrapping around the can in a dynamic, cut through manner. With simplified graphics to both appeal to a younger audience as well as work within print constraints, the RTD is both contemporary yet with heritage cues to reassure consumers of its credibility.