Background & context

With the Dark RTD category forecast to remain flat for the next ten years, Beam Suntory needed to diversify into light RTDs.

However, this category was being powered by a new wave of ‘better for you’ seltzers, led by US juggernaut White Claw. The hype was such that in 2020, James Brindley, MD of Lion described White Claw as:

“The hottest beverage on the planet…a game-changer that will take the iconic Australian summer to a new level.”

Creative challenge: Buck the seltzer trend and turn a little-known Japanese drink into a surprise hit

Unfortunately for us, we didn’t have a seltzer. What we did have was an obscure Japanese premix that was renamed and reformulated as “-196” for the Australian market. Stronger in taste and alcohol, our job was to buck the prevailing seltzer trend and turn -196 into a surprise hit.

Solution: Subvert a seltzer category light on substance by positioning -196 as the brand that embodies the intensity of the Japanese spirit.

While the ‘better for you’ credentials and Insta-inspired beach vibes of seltzer seemed like a natural fit for the Australian lifestyle, our hypothesis was that the growing ubiquity of this marketing approach risked making seltzer seem superficial and generic – something we could exploit.

And our qual research told us that for many younger drinkers, the highlight of the week wasn’t going out - it was the ‘pres’ before. And this moment demanded a drink with enough oomph to get the party started. As Vice put it:

“Pre-drinks are a contained, precision engineered operation. Hedonism with an objective. Tinnies with a timestamp. You need to get them right, for the rest of your night is counting on them.”

Combining this with Australians’ love for the intensity of modern Japan, we arrived at our core creative idea:

“Extreme Japanese Spirit”

Execution: A two-phased campaign celebrating “Extreme Japanese Spirit”

PHASE 1 (May-August 2021) Build PR and social buzz, amplifying perceived cult following

Despite low awareness of -196 prior to launch, research revealed that the tiny number of Aussies who had tried the original ‘Strong Zero’ in Japan tended to be pretty passionate about it. We used PR and social influence to amplify the sense -196 already had a cult following in Australia, an ‘in the know’ alternative to the ubiquitous seltzers.

PHASE 2 (August 2021-April 2022) Build mainstream awareness around -196’s intensely Japanese spirit

Built around the idea of ‘Extreme Japanese Spirit’, we launched two irreverent 15” films designed for YouTube and social environments, supported by a suite of shorter Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Spotify ads. Body-slamming sumo wrestlers, and a lethal samurai swordswoman hinted at the extreme lengths we go to in order to produce the intense flavour of -196, before revealing the true product formula.

Establishing distinctive brand assets was key, so we deployed the bold yellow colour, whole lemons, ‘Whole, Freeze, Crush’ mnemonic and Japanese script to make -196 unmissable across all consumer, retail and trade comms