Creativity leads to sales: Tiger beer’s latest fashion statement is a cool beer-filled puffer jacket

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Tiger Beer is dipping its paws into the fashion space with the launch of the world's first puffer jacket with a beer-powered cooling system made specifically to keep you cool in the tropical heat.

Done in partnership with fashion designer Izzy Du, BBH Singapore and LePub APAC, the TIGER Summer Puffer's cooling system is powered by an ice-cold Tiger Beer. The beer chills water that is then pumped around the wearer's body using a network of silicone tubes. These tubes make contact with key points where the arteries are closest to the skin, cooling the body down by up to 5°C in the sun.

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To engineer the tech behind the TIGER Summer Puffer, Tiger Beer and Du worked with a creative studio in Japan, Whatever Co. Masashi Kawamura, chief creative officer at Whatever Co. said that the jacket was inspired by the same tech that keeps astronauts cool in extreme temperatures.

"We tried a variety of cooling system designs, each making the jacket more effective at keeping the wearer cool for as long as possible. We tested various tube placements, tube materials, water tank designs and electronic wiring before landing on the final mechanism. We even had a trial run where the jacket became too cold to wear, and we had to tune it down to get it to the right temperature,” Kawamura said.

Besides the tech, Du attempted to capture the boldness of Tiger Beer by incorporating a number of design cues inspired by the brand. She paid homage to a tiger with design elements such as bold and bright orange hues, tiger ears, a pair of fangs, and a subtle striped pattern.

“Making a puffer for the summer is an external expression of how refreshing and cool it feels to drink a Tiger. I started with the feeling of opening an ice-cold can of beer, and playing with the colours of the brand, before imbuing the aesthetics of the puffer with a new function,” said Du who has been making waves in the world of puffer fashion with voluminous forms and unrepeatable originality. Her bold vision makes her a perfect fit for Tiger Beer, a brand that believes in defying the odds and attempting the unthinkable. said Tiger Beer.

“It's always a joy to work with brands bold enough to play in pop culture. And with refreshment so intrinsic to Tiger Beer, it's only natural for them to refresh puffer jackets for drinkers in Asia,” said Sascha Kuntze, chief creative officer of BBH Singapore.

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Sean O’Donnell, global brand director at Tiger Beer said that the whole idea from conceptualisation to execution took around six months.

“This idea is highly innovative and links to Tiger Crystal’s refreshment proposition to resonate with our target consumers in a new and exciting way,” said O’Donnell. “The puffer jacket is one of fashion’s hottest items amongst Gen Z and millennials across Asia but there’s one challenge: it can’t be worn in the heat of the tropics.”

While the marketing plans for the cooling puffer jacket, and the number of jackets produced, are yet to be confirmed, O'Donnell said that customers and fans of Tiger in Southeast Asia most certainly will have the chance to experience it next year.

“While we have the ambition to let consumers experience it, we are not a fashion company so we aren’t going to make thousands and thousands of the jackets,” he said. “Whether we sell [these jackets] as limited edition products or give them out as part of competitions, what is certain is that we want our brand ambassadors to really experience the jacket.”

As for the Asia-based audience, the team is looking to showcase the jacket through specific localised events. “We want to turn it from just being something that consumers see on Instagram or Facebook from our global brand ambassadors to potentially an experience that they can have. So we'll be working with all our key markets for next year,” he said. “We want to go beyond just influencers,” he added.

Where does the next big idea come from?

According to O’Donnell, every execution comes from great insight followed by strategy. He is also a big believer in creativity solving problems. “I would agree with a lot of the research which talks about creative work resonating with consumers resulting in better sales,” he said.

“I've seen that in a number of brands that I've worked on," he said, adding:

I think ultimately, what I believe in is we, first of all, have to have a great strategy and then the work flows from there.

O’Donnell also has trust in his agency partners to come up with great ideas and believes that once the correct strategy has been established, it allows for agencies to be bolder and view ideas that might make clients a little nervous. He adds that he doesn’t worry about the next big idea and trusts his agency partners to come up with the next big thing. However, what’s needed as a client is a clear business problem to solve that is articulated in an even clearer brief.

“That's super exciting, it allows you to start thinking much bigger than what you had thought,” he said. O’Donnell also added that Heineken as a company is one that believes in creativity and this runs across the leadership team.

“Our flagship brand Heineken does some incredible things. So, I'm very lucky in the Heineken company that we as a company believe in creativity,” he added.

The TIGER Summer Puffer statement jacket can be experienced first-hand during Paris Fashion Week which is taking place between 26 September to 4 October this year.

After its debut in Paris, Tiger Beer will be bringing the TIGER Summer Puffer to Asia for ZoukOut, Asia's longest-running dance music festival. Taking place in the tropical heat of Singapore in December 2023, festival goers will have the opportunity to witness the TIGER Summer Puffer in action, combining fashion with music, it said.

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