It sounds like a match made in Elkhorn: a throwback, Instagram-favorite Wisconsin lake resort and a cheap beer that’s growing its clout among young people reaching for the lager their grandparents drank.
Hamm’s Beer began leaning into its retro branding last year with a new version of the iconic blue cans from the 1960s. “Fans loved it so much we decided to bring it back this year,” says Bill Holland, a Molson Coors marketer who’s on the Hamm’s team.
Based on a past stay, Holland had the perfect place in mind for photo and video shoots to rev up the beer’s retro vibes: Camp Wandawega, about 40 miles southwest on Downtown Milwaukee. It’s owned by Chicago advertising executives David Hernandez and Tereasa Surratt, who frequently open up their 25-acre lakeside retreat – including 1920s-era cabins, a treehouse, vintage vehicles, glamping tents and flea-market décor – to brands.
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Before its current chapter, the property on Lake Wandawega earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, and held space for a brothel and speakeasy (1920s), a lake resort (1950s) and a camp for Latvian Catholics (1960s and 1970s). Hernandez actually attended the camp as a kid.
Beyond the summer camp-inspired media shot there for the brand re-launch, the camp’s throwback-meets-cool theme spawned a line of merch, too. Hamm’s x Camp Wandawega “Summer of ‘66” collection – featuring items like beer accessories, apparel and lake essentials, all influenced by the 1950s and 1960s – launched in late July on the Hamm’s website. “If it felt like it could have lived here (then), it became part of the collection,” says Surratt.
“This is like my love letter – and Tereasa’s love letter – to this period,” says Holland, referring to the 1960s.
In 1966 Hamm’s was the country’s eighth-largest brewery. Founded in 1865 in St. Paul, Minnesota, the brewery had various owners until purchased by Miller Brewing in 1999. It’s now part of the Molson Coors portfolio of beers, and much of it is made in Milwaukee. With craft breweries popping up left and right, it’s a crowded marketplace. Creating content set at this retro lakeside getaway could be a way to excite people about a 158-year-old beer brand.
Turns out the beer brand had a story there all along: Holland found a photo taken in the 1970s of a Hamm’s beer can in a cabinet at Camp Wandawega. And he happened to have vacationed at Camp Wandawega before working at Hamm’s – on his guest towel was a Hamm’s matchbook, in fact.
But first he had to convince Surratt. He wrote a letter to her – a proposal pitch, if you will – on a 1930s typewriter, stating why he felt the beer brand’s “Land of Sky Blue Waters” slogan was a perfect fit with Camp Wandawega’s camp-y vibe.
“There’s a humility to this, for the ‘everyman,’” says Surratt about the collection, while holding up the blue windbreaker with pride.
“You want it to feel like it’s an artifact found in your grandfather’s garage,” says Holland, cradling a black inner tube – while perfect for floating in the lake on a lazy summer day, it’s also a link to Hamm’s earlier advertising, with or without the bear.
