The Pirinsko Mountain Train
When Bulgaria’s last narrow-gauge railway was about to be shut down, cutting off remote communities in the poor Pirin villages, Pirinsko stepped in to help its home region.
Bulgaria’s last narrow-gauge railroad serves remote Pirin communities, offering affordable transport for women who can’t drive and vital jobs for local men. During the pandemic, as tourism collapsed, the government planned to shut the iconic train down, further threatening the region. Pirinsko, the local beer named after Pirin mountain, stepped in with an unprecedented idea: the brand took over the “lost-cause” mountain train and turned it into a 6-hour Beer Train Experience to draw tourists to its home region and support it.
We entirely transformed the exterior of the train, refreshed the interior and set up an exclusive Beer Train Car to serve Pirinsko brew to the passengers. On top of this, the entire communication force of the brand – TV, OOH, Print, Radio, Digital – was devoted to promoting the mountain train as the ultimate and most picturesque experience to visit Pirin region, while enjoying a cool beer on the go. We even published a custom newspaper dedicated to the mountain.
Social media has been spontaneously flooded with thousands of shared posts. Media coverage about “The Beer Train Car” reached nearly 10 million people. And we managed to completely overturn the negative tourist trend from 2020.
