Norrlands Ljus

The Strategic Orchestration Behind a Category Outperformer

Intro

If people who know me were to name one brand most closely associated with the work me and my agency have delivered, it would almost certainly be the work we carried out in close cooperation with Spendrups in general, and particularly Norrlands Ljus. And rightly so.

In 2017 we were brought in to work on the reposition of the brand then known as Norrlands Guld Ljus. A quiet sub-brand with low investment, unclear positioning and little momentum. Our task was to redefine it so it could stand on its own. Six years later, it had outperformed the category almost ten times over.

The Strategic Foundations

A New Audience 
The strategy targeted (non-anxious) women and men aged 25–40, a younger consumer group than the parent brand Norrlands Guld had ever reached.

A Clear Mission
—> Establish as a distinct sub-brand
—> Build brand awareness
—> Increase preference  
—> Modernize the the parent brand

Reshaping the Brand

Together with Spendrups we rebuilt the brand across product, identity and presence creating one clear and consistent direction.

Brand architecture and identity

We removed “Guld” and built the brand around Ljus. This gave the beer a clear identity and simplified the master brand structure – Norrlands instead of Norrlands Guld – making all future marketing far easier to execute.
Distinctive attributes

To cut through the crowded beer category, we defined a small set of brand attributes that guided all creative work: a red visual world, the idea of light, and a unified expression that over the years evolved from bottle to can in line with category trends.
Product alignment

We made the beer eco. This strengthened the brand in the target group, sharpened its relevance and unlocked a new set of cultural and partnership opportunities, most notably the Way Out West sponsorship.
Where the brand should live

We rebuilt the horeca strategy from the ground up. We mapped where Ljus should be sold, identified where to invest, and shaped the right distribution and presence in key cities from a sales, brand activation and image perspective.

Building the Brand Through Culture

The strategy focused on building the brand in culture, not just in paid media. Festivals and cultural partnerships gave us direct access to the audience we needed and allowed Ljus to show up in a way that felt modern, social and emotionally relevant.

We also treated sponsorships as IP, not events. By maximising rights, extending ideas and creating our own cultural moments around them, the brand reached far beyond festival attendance. Content and storytelling travelled across social, PR and culture, reaching millions of people who never set foot inside a festival.

Turning Commercial Rights into Reach

Instead of a few activation days each year, festivals became year-round content engines. They formed the backbone of an always-on strategy that consistently kept the brand present in people’s feeds, conversations and real-world moments.

Way Out West became the first anchor point, but we soon expanded into Åre Sessions, Lollapalooza, Popaganda and more. Content was produced continuously: artist collaborations, ski-school activations, pre-festival experiences, live shows on Instagram and Facebook, and ongoing social storytelling.

We also added more PR-driven initiatives to the mix, designed to generate earned media and cultural buzz. Initiatives like the Cooler Filled With Sunshine and Chiara Organica – the pizza made from leftover beer – became widely recognized and award-winning.

Layering in Fireworks

Chiara Organica

“Unlike other breweries, Spendrups has come up with a novel use for their spent grains: as the basis for a pizza crust. And now, an award-winning pizza parlor in Stockholm is teaming up with Norrlands Ljus Organic, one of Spendrups’ beer brands, to produce a pizza. PIzza and beer is a great match, but pizza that is beer, in and of its essence? Well, that’s sort of genius.”

– Vice

The Cooler Filled With Sunshine

“Sweden’s biggest beer brand is offering a remedy for the seasonal depression that can accompany these cold winter months: a cooler that contains light from this year’s summer solstice. Norrlands Ljus used data collected on June 20, the longest day of the year, in a place called Ljusdal, which translates to “Valley of Light,” to create the perfect therapy lamp”

– Adweek

From Brand Work to Brand Growth

The shift wasn’t only cultural – it was commercial. And since Systembolaget offers a uniquely clean measurement environment with no discounts or in-store promotions, the numbers tell a very clear story about the impact of sustained brand building.

Over the six-year period, Norrlands Ljus achieved an average annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.0%, which is more than six times faster than the category's average annual growth of 2.8%.

Sales growth value in percent at Systembolaget

Key Brand Metrics

The brand building efforts have resulted in profound changes in consumer perception and brand awareness for Norrlands Ljus has increased by 52% since 2017.
Nearly one in five in the target group now agree with the statement “Norrlands Ljus is my preferred choice of beer.” In 2017, that figure was close to zero.
Studies confirm that the perception of the brand's value has soared, up from a non-existent price premium in 2017 Norrlands Ljus now commands a price premium in the target group that surpasses that of premium positioned big global competitors.

Strategic Sales Achievements

The strength of the brand is reflected in the exceptional sales results. Sales volume has more than doubled (an increase of 144%), from 1.5 million liters to 3.8 million liters.
Price per unit could be increased by 35 percent, close to SEK 4 per 33 cl can, as a direct result of strengthened brand equity.
Annual revenue up 174 percent, from SEK 59M to SEK 162M. An increase of SEK 103M driven by both volume growth and realized price premium.
The category grew 18 percent between 2017-2023. Norrlands Ljus grew 174 percent; around ten times faster.
It is important to note that these figures exclusively reflect publicly available sales statistics from Systembolaget. Although official data is unavailable, the same aggressive market pattern – and a significantly larger overall volume – is known to be present within the restaurant sector, suggesting that the actual increase is substantially more significant than the already impressive sales figures indicate.

Clear positioning, distinctive assets and consistent execution created the foundation for everything that followed. When the fundamentals are strong, every communication investment works harder.
Being involved not only in communication but also in where the brand lived — which venues, what environments, how it showed up — strengthened both brand meaning and experience.
Keeping the same strategic direction year after year built momentum that didn’t reset. Long-term coherence beat short-term novelty.
Because the brand groundwork was set early the creative work could hit harder and travel further. It became easy to recognize, easy to buy into, and easy to build on.
By rooting the brand in culture with a clear PR ambition, the work travelled far beyond media plans and delivered reach the budget could not have bought.
I hate to break it to you: real brand building happens over years, not quarters. Norrlands Ljus proves what patience and persistence deliver. It’s the grind and consistency over time, not the fireworks.
Transparency, shared planning and constant iteration with Spendrups created momentum. When an agency is treated like a partner, the work and the people behind it get more involved and perform at a higher level.