hard apple cider will begin sales April 7, marking the first new brand introduction by Anheuser-Busch since Shock Top eight years ago.Johnny Appleseed, with an alcohol content of 5.5 percent, will be available nationwide in bottles and cans. Draft sales will begin in the summer.
In November, St. Louis-based A-B, the North American unit of A-B InBev, confirmed its plans to debut Johnny Appleseed, but did not disclose its packaging and marketing plans.
A-B is investing heavily on TV, digital and other advertising for a “full, 360 degree campaign” for the launch, said Eli Aguilera, A-B’s director of high-end products. “We believe that this brand has the opportunity for significant volume potential.”
Anomaly in New York, the same agency behind Budweiser’s recent Super Bowl commercials, is creating Johnny Appleseed’s ads with the tagline “let the stories flow.”
With the new brand, A-B is seeking to meet demand in the growing hard cider category. Hard cider sales in the U.S. grew nearly 100 percent in the 52 weeks that ended Jan. 26 to $220.7 million, according to Chicago-based market research firm IRI. The figures do not include sales at bars and restaurants.
A-B began offering Stella Artois Cidre, a European-style cider beverage with 4.5 percent alcohol, in 26 U.S. states in May 2013, two years after it was launched in the U.K. The beverage, a line extension of Stella Artois, was rolled out nationally in the U.S. in January.
Johnny Appleseed has been in development since 2011, and the apple juice-based product will be produced in Baldwinsville, N.Y.
More than 750 consumers in the core target group for Johnny Appleseed — 21- to 34-year-olds — helped in developing the product, which has the “sweetness and notes of apples, but also has the apple’s bite,” Aguilera said.
Boston Beer Co., maker of Samuel Adams beer, leads hard cider sales with its Angry Orchard brand, with market share more than 52 percent. A-B’s Michelob Ultra Light Cider and Stella Artois Cidre brands each have less than 4 percent market share, according to IRI.
But competition is heating up, with the country’s two largest breweries, A-B and Chicago-based MillerCoors, both coming out with new hard ciders.
MillerCoors, which acquired the Crispin Cider brand in 2012, debuted a new hard cider nationally this month, Smith & Forge, that’s less sweet than many other ciders, according to the brewer, and is targeted to men. Its logo features a blacksmith’s hammer, and marketing materials include the phrase “a sturdy drink for the hardy gent.”
“What we’re trying to do is broaden the cider market and bring the folks in who perhaps hadn’t tried a cider before,” said Royce Carvalho, MillerCoors’ brand manager for Smith & Forge. The beverage has 6 percent alcohol.
A-B said it isn’t limiting its marketing push for Johnny Appleseed to one gender. Its ads will focus on life’s adventures and journeys, evoking the spirit of Johnny Appleseed, and enjoying the product among friends, both male and female, Aguilera said.
“We believe the biggest opportunity is building a brand that both women and men can enjoy and love,” he said.
Both A-B and MillerCoors see continued growth for the cider category as more customers try it for the first time. A-B is planning on giving out more than a million samples of Johnny Appleseed this year in a push to broaden the customer base.
“Consumers, their consideration set is so big now, whether it’s eight million kinds of gum or countless kinds of Skittles,” MillerCoors’ Carvalho said. “There’s just this expectation by consumers, this thirst for variety, and cider isn’t any different.”
