BRAND PACKAGING
BEYOND BEER Iconic beermaker making a big splash with game-changing product diversification and inspired packaging masterclass By George Guidoni, Editor
CANADIANPACKAGING.COM
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t tastes, looks and smells like nothing North America’s oldest brewer has ever produced or sold before in its proud 245-year-old history of beermaking. But as the run-up to the annual summer Beer Wars between Canada’s biggest brewing companies and the ever-growing ranks of craft brewers begins to gather steam, the Molson Coors Beverage Company’s sensational $100-million Canada-wide launch of two new brands of pre-mixed carbonated alcoholic spritzers this spring is a sure sign of sweeping transformation and disruption unfolding in North American markets for adult beverages of all types. Produced and packaged at various production and co-packing facilities across Canada, the new Coors Seltzer and Vizzy Hard Seltzer brands of fruit-flavored cocktail mixes represent a dramatic side-step from the brewer’s well-traveled path of chasing market share gains in flat slow-growth beer markets into a promising new beverage industry segment posting stunning rates of growth in
recent years. “These are the biggest innovation launches that we have had at Molson Coors Canada in the last 10 years,” says Leslie Malcolm, the company’s brand director for seltzer, flavour and emerging growth. “There is a huge opportunity presented to us by huge consumer demand for products that are lower in calories and sugar, while also still delivering on the critical consumer needs of taste, flavor and value,” Malcolm told Canadian Packaging in a recent interview on the eve of the new product rollout supported by massive television advertising and other elaborate marketing campaigns targeting much younger and trendier demographics compared to the traditional beer drinking audience of yesteryear. “There an explosive growth in demand for better-for-you beverages,” says Malcolm, citing a “perfect storm” of gamechanging consumer trends driving the popularity of RTD (ready-to-drink) beverage category in general, with spritzers in particular leading the charge. May 2021 · CANADIANPACKAGING
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