Bud Light Seltzer was named IRI’s No. 1 New Product Pacesetter for the entire food and beverage category. It’s the first time a bev/al product has earned that position.
One trend in this year’s Pacesetters is notable consumer interest in carbonated beverages, including sparkling waters and hard seltzers. Of the top 25 food and beverage Pacesetters of 2020, IRI said, 10 are beverages. Bud Light Seltzer, which launched in January 2020, took the No. 1 spot, followed by Truly Lemonade and Mtn Dew Zero Sugar. All of the top three food and beverage Pacesetters generated more than $100 million in sales in IRI’s measured multi-outlet markets.
Beverage alcohol products accounted for eight of the 27 beverage Pacesetters and generated a massive $547 million compared to last year’s six that brought in $198 million, IRI said. In 2020, beer, wine and spirits reigned supreme as consumer celebrations and entertaining moved in-home. New product launches in this space made a huge splash, generating a combined 44% of Pacesetter beverage dollars compared with 17% last year.
Bud Light Seltzer launched in January 2020 – two months before the pandemic set in. The brand had to adapt to an extremely fluid environment and find new ways to connect with fans across the country with new marketing tactics such as virtual livestream concerts and gaming competitions, and lean heavily in connecting with fans via social media channels.
As one example the company cited, in August 2020 Bud Light Seltzer announced via Instagram they were hiring the first ever CMO aka ‘Chief Meme Officer.’ The brand received an incredible response from fans getting nearly 3,000 submissions for the role in less than 48 hours, Bud Light Seltzer said. It was a fun and unique way to engage the current Bud Light fan base while also attracting approximately 2,000 new followers to the Bud Light community on Instagram as a result.
Innovative, fun flavor offerings such as the wildly popular limited-edition Ugly Sweater Pack release around the holidays (featuring Peppermint Pattie flavor), the limited-edition Out of Office Pack launched this spring (featuring Watermelon Mojito flavor), and most recently, the limited-edition Retro Summer Pack keep consumers heading back to the shelves to enjoy new seasonal offerings, brand officials say.