Mike’s Hard Lemonade launched a new multichannel advertising campaign, “Drink on the bright side.” It’s designed to spark laughter and generate smiles through content that mixes eccentric yet hilarious Internet culture with playful, surreal animation.
The marketing push brings digital-style video to television in a radically new way, and marks the first time Mike’s shifts away from speaking about the occasion around drinking a Mike’s Hard Lemonade to the emotion felt when drinking it—happiness.
“We’re living in a time full of a lot of negativity, and lemonade is an inherently happy flavor. So it’s silly to think about sad people drinking Mike’s,” said Sanjiv Gajiwala, VP-Marketing, Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Gajiwala also believes that, “Mike’s is the only brand in alcohol beverage that is exclusively about happiness; by owning the happy feeling you experience when drinking a hard lemonade, we’re having a conversation and an interaction with our consumers that’s relevant to them.”
Despite explosive category growth and increased product competition from rival brewers, Mike’s Hard Lemonade’s strategy of engaging and reaching millennials with a nontraditional, digital-heavy approach has helped the company outperform the entire Flavored Malt Beverage category.
Last year, a mostly digital media strategy drove consumption up 12% percent in the U.S.— “incredible results in a beer category that has trended flat in the past decade,” the company said. Last summer, Mike’s Hard variety pack was the best-selling variety pack in all of beer and Mike’s Hard watermelon, the summer seasonal flavor, was the fastest-selling 6-pack in the Flavored Malt Beverage category.
With sales of $293 million last year, Mike’s Hard Lemonade is now the fastest-growing top-10 beer company in America, according to Chicago-based market research firm IRI. It has achieved this growth by staying aggressively innovative in the category it created, and keeping relentlessly focused on evolving and improving the Mike’s brand through flavor diversity and product variety. As a result, 2016 was the fourth straight year of year-over-year growth.
“We’re successful because we spend more time thinking about what’s in the bottle and building a personal relationship with our consumers,” said Phil Rosse, President. “Flavor is our business, and tastes and palates are changing. We want to continue to be the company that introduces the best-tasting flavors and varieties that are always on trend, and delivers quality products to consumers at the experiences and activities where they enjoy them.”
For the brand’s latest campaign, Mike’s Hard Lemonade partnered with The Annex to develop the creative content that focuses on connecting with its core target customer, males ages 25 to 29. The agency utilized live action and green screens to bring unexpected, visually disruptive and unusual—though relatable—Internet content to viewers.
In digital pre-roll video “Rocket Shoes,” the character cracks open a Mike’s and experiences the unbelievable feeling of flying, thanks to rocket shoes strapped to his feet. In a television spot titled “Jackpot,” the creative brings to life the interests of millennials through a game of slot machines and a stroke of luck that represents happiness and transports the character to a lazy river at a water park.
Throughout the summer, ads will air on Comedy Central, Viceland, FOX Sports and FX, all popular networks among millennials, and pre-roll video will run on YouTube and Hulu. On social media, the agency leveraged Imgur to promote custom content and worked with Snapchat to create a tailored branded offering.
Other app partners such as Spotify will play radio ads and post standard banners; PopKey, powered by Receptiv, will allow consumers to share GIFs through an installed mobile keyboard app; Emogi will generate specially-designed stickers that will be seen across messaging apps like iMessage.
Finally, Mike’s Hard Lemonade co-developed a new mikeshard.com website with Havas digital agency Helia that is now live.
To complement the campaign launch, Mike’s Hard Lemonade will embark on a “Happy Camper” mobile sampling tour. Featuring a custom-wrapped, bright yellow trailer, the tour will stop in select markets where attendees can try mike’s flavors and take part in special brand experiences. Additionally, Havas Formula will amplify the campaign with a PR program that delivers happiness in unexpected ways through press, influencer and consumer engagements.