Tecate has historically been a leading beer brand in Northern Mexico. The Tecate team wanted to build on this regional success and extend the beer’s popularity to all of Mexico, including the younger and more cosmopolitan Mexico City. To do this, they hoped to change the overall perception of Tecate to feel more relevant, progressive, and elevated without alienating its existing consumer base. In short, they wanted Tecate to become the most desirable beer in Mexico.

To design around this challenge, Elmwood New York conducted an extensive cultural immersion across Mexico to understand the various perceptions and behaviors in consumption and shopping across regions. With a brand as beloved as Tecate, we knew that a boots-on-the-ground immersion across Mexico’s many regions would be necessary to inform a meaningful design. From this process, we understood that the brand is deeply entwined in the country’s cultural fabric. Yes, it’s a great beer, but it’s more than that: it’s an authentic lifestyle icon ingrained in Mexican sports, music, and entertainment. We needed to shift the narrative beyond product—to an attitude encapsulating Tecate’s unapologetic boldness and modern masculinity.

With these learnings in hand, Elmwood NY revisited Tecate’s assets to build distinctiveness and help the beer stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace. This included emboldening the brand’s iconic eagle and wordmark as well as stripping back unnecessary visual clutter. We then crafted the beer’s new brand world. This included everything from music festival and soccer sponsorships to point-of-sale and out-of-home advertisements. The result is a more modern visual identity that embraces Tecate’s bold spirit and moves the brand beyond just a beloved beer to become a true lifestyle brand.

"As a designer, I just want to hold these cans in my hand. I find them very beautiful, very strong. They have such an appealing personality that, aesthetically, I want to hold it and want to drink from it. It’s still a bit too early to tell, but I’m quite sure that consumers will also love it." - Mark van Iterson, Global Director of Design & Sustainability, The Heineken Company