Arnold Palmer Spiked Half & Half has unveiled its 2019 media campaign that aims to keep the wind at the brand’s sails.
The hard half iced tea-half lemonade named after the legendary golfer is debuting a new tagline, "Have a round," and a refreshed digital, print, social and out-of-home advertising campaign that focuses on a key differentiation point — that it’s made with real tea and real juice.
The campaign reinforces that Arnold Palmer Spiked “is the perfect complement to a backyard barbecue, the golf course, the game, and beyond,” said Bryan Ferschinger, vice president of MillerCoors’ above premium portfolio, in a note to employees and distributors.
Each spot in the new round of digital and social ads features the "Have a round" tagline and focuses on introducing more drinkers to the brand, which launched in 2018.
After finishing 2018 ranking as the top flavored malt beverage released for the year, and the No. 3 new brand in all of beer and cider, it has picked up 0.5 points of share so far this year in its segment and now represents a 0.9 share in flavored malt beverages, per Nielsen.
What’s more, it has sourced more than half of its volume from wine and spirits and 14% from buyers who were new to the alcohol beverage category, per MillerCoors data.
With its new campaign, the brand “is poised to unlock even further growth this year as we capitalize on this momentum to reach new drinkers,” Ferschinger said. In conjunction with the new creative work, Arnold Palmer Spiked has increased the number of markets in which it’s making a substantial investment to 24, up from 13 last year.
Buoyed by its first-year success, the brand also will release two new drinks in four test markets this summer: Arnie’s Spiked Iced Tea and Arnie’s Spiked Lemonade. Arnie’s Spiked essentially decouples the original Arnold Palmer Spiked into two flavors. Like the original flavor, the extensions check in at 5% alcohol by volume.
This comes following the introduction of 12-packs of slim cans this spring, an effort to expand the brand’s appeal for larger social occasions and get more placements and floor displays in large-format and big-box retailers.
Made in partnership with Hornell Brewing, a unit of iced-tea maker AriZona Beverages, the new drinks aim to bring incremental drinkers to both the hard tea and hard lemonade spaces and afford the brand additional opportunities for greater in-store presence and promotional support at retail.