Moosehead Breweries is leaning into its shared 150th anniversary with Canada to show how, in both cases, a history of resilience and hard work is a stepping stone to shape the future.

The “We Are Still Pioneers” campaign builds on the concept of resilience established in last year’s “Outlast” campaign, while drawing more of a connection between the shared 150th birthday of Moosehead Breweries and Canada. The campaign launch on Monday marks its introductory phase, which includes a 60-second spot that will be aired on broadcast, in cinema and online,with the campaign also including shorter versions of the spot, social media and out-of-home.

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The spot builds off a quote delivered by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson during Canada’s centennial in 1967, where he talks about how, despite celebrating the country’s 100th year, it was still a young nation, and that gave it an opportunity to shape its future.

“Resilience doesn’t change, and the notion that we are speaking to is a lifetime of hard work and dedication and passion from our company,” says Deanna Lichty, senior director of marketing at Moosehead Breweries. “We did pivot to connect a bit more strongly to Canada and our shared anniversary. We’re continuing with our messaging that, just like Canada, we are not slowing down, and we are just getting started.”

In the summer months, Moosehead will launch what it’s calling the “invite” phase of the campaign, when a limited edition “Canada Day Future Bottle” of Moosehead Lager featuring a blank label will be released. Canadians are invited to write their vision for what the future of the country should look like on the labels and share them using the “#Outlast” hashtag on social media.

“There are constantly new ideas and innovation coming out of Moosehead, and we find Canada is in a very similar position,” Lichty says. “Globally, Canada is a very young nation and that gives us an ability to shape our future. We want to empower our consumers to contribute to that and inspire people to get involved in writing Canada’s future.”

Moosehead’s creative AOR Taxi 2 led creative on the campaign, with Media Experts on media, Craft on PR and Art & Mechanical handling the new packaging and design.

Lichty says Moosehead’s business performed well following the release of last year’s campaign and the company’s new strategic approach. She believes part of the reason for that is that it communicated Moosehead’s status as an independent brewery, something many Canadians were unaware of but are increasingly interested in when it comes to the beer category.

“We found Canadians really started to understand our unique position in Canada’s beer industry,” Lichty says. “We are finally telling the story that we’ve always known, and it’s starting to resonate with people. We believe one reason consumers are going to the craft beer space is because they are local businesses that are showing their own resiliency. Consumers find it very interesting that, even though we’ve been around for so long, we share that independence and craftsmanship that’s been drawing them to craft.”

On top of all that, Moosehead has also debuted new corporate branding. It’s reflective of a strategic shift that Moosehead has been undergoing over the past year that leans more heavily into “Moosehead Breweries” as a masterbrand, with the company’s social accounts making the transition to the “Breweries” naming last week and a new website that combines several brand sites into one (one brand that continues to live outside the masterbrand is Hop City, which is owned by Moosehead but operates from its own, separate brewery in Brampton).

“In the past, we have spoken very much to our individual brands,” Lichty says, speaking of a roster that includes Moosehead Lager, Moosehead Pale Ale, Cracked Canoe, Moose Light and the new Moosehead Anniversary Ale. “But we feel we have such a rich history as a masterbrand, so we’re definitely pivoting towards that.”