Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) has taken out Best Innovation at the 2017 Australian drinks Awards with Pure Blonde Cider.
The cider, launched last year, has 60% less sugar and 50% less carbs than an average cider and is targetted at health conscious drinkers. It was introduced with a $3 million TV and marketing campaign, which Marketing Director Richard Oppy told AdNews was one of the “most successful campaigns because it’s cut through with consumers and driven top line growth.”
“A lot of people drink less beer because they think it’s full of carbs and calories,” he added. “With cider, there are 4.3 million people who consider cider but don’t drink it and one of the reasons is that they think it’s full of sugar. So, we created a cider that tastes great, but it’s got 60% less sugar than regular cider. We’ve taken the same construct that people recognise with Pure Blonde. Its s simple 15-second ad that does the job. It’s the first time Pure Blonde has done a non-beer extension so that’s quite a big thing for the brand.”
Cider is booming in Australia, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last week Australians consumed 7.2 million litres of cider last year, or 0.37 litres per person — up from 0.07 in 2004.
Roy Morgan backs up the stats, it reports that between January and March 2016, nearly three million people (2,880,000) reported having consumed cider at least once in the last four weeks, compared with 2,250,000 in the quarter preceding it (October-December 2015) and 2,220,000 in the quarter following it (April-June 2016).
Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director, Roy Morgan Research, noted: “Since we first revealed cider’s popularity boom in the wake of the government’s increased tax on ‘alcopops’ (premixed spirits), its upward trajectory has been nothing short of remarkable. The number of Aussie adults drinking cider in an average four weeks has now well and truly surpassed those drinking alcopops in the same period (2,025,000) and shows no sign of plateauing.”
Thank you to Award Sponsors NCI/AMA for supporting such an important category at the Australian drinks Awards.
