Challenge

In 2014, the fastest growing part of the cider market was “flavoured premium”, dominated by long-established Scandinavian brands Kopparberg and Rekorderlig. Our client Heineken UK didn’t have anything in their UK portfolio that could compete. 

The answer was Old Mout, a cider brand from New Zealand. However, launching it in the UK was far from straightforward. In its home market, the brand was affordable and mass market, but in the UK we needed it to be premium. At the same time, it needed to be launched and grown on a modest budget. Luckily, New Zealanders have a thing they call ‘number 8 wire mentality’ - the ability to be resourceful and make do with whatever they have to hand. So that’s the spirit we channeled for the advertising …

Solution

With one fruit cider tasting much like another, it was crucial we make Old Mout’s New Zealand provenance our point of difference.

Brits don’t know much about New Zealand, but we do know it’s an amazing natural playground. Not only that, it’s a place that inspires people to have adventures in nature; to bungee jump, ski, surf and mountain bike. Speaking to 18-30 year olds in UK cities, who want to be living an adventurous life but who often find that routine gets in the way, the Kiwi mindset is aspirational - get out there and make the most of the world around you. 

Over the last 10 years, the brand's journey can be separated into three phases - establishing the brand, growing differentiation and forging deeper emotional connection. Our agenda setting idea was ‘the Kiwi taste for adventure’, we inspire people to make the most of the playground around them, just like a kiwi would. To bring this philosophy to life, a new icon was created - the Kiwi bird you now see on the bottle. This gave us a highly distinctive brand world, and one that allows us to create all the comms assets in house at low cost. This flows from festival activation to packaging to shopper marketing.

Through the establishing phase, our Kiwi inspired drinkers through OOH, digital and partnerships dared to be more adventurous in their daily lives and their choice of cider. Having introduced the brand, we then set out to create differentiation, as the most natural cider. Like anyone inspired by nature, we believe we have an obligation to look after it. So Old Mout set out to protect nature’s playground… 

and more specifically with the endangered Kiwi bird working with a NZ charity to help protect hatchlings from predators.

Animated entirely by Apostle, our in-house studio, the ad was Heineken UK’s best ever performance in pre-testing. Post Covid, we've pivoted to bring the strategy closer to home, forging deeper connections with drinkers.

However, we found Gen Z is rejecting the notion of curated ideals and following trends, but that the alcohol category isn’t giving them what they want. It’s an exclusive club that expects you to look or act a certain way. Old Mout, meanwhile, is the club that everyone is invited to - no matter who you are or what you look like. We’re fun, playful, and, most importantly, we are unashamedly ourselves.  

We are proud of who we are and what we’re made of, which is why we never use artificial flavourings or sweeteners to try to be something we’re not. 

We are the “what you see is what you get cider”. When we say pineapple and raspberries we mean pure pineapple and real raspberries. The result? A naturally delicious cider that everyone can get on board with.  

Because like the fruit in Old Mout, we believe in bringing everyone’s true nature together… in Moutopia. A place where everyone is invited - no matter how different.

As a result we encouraged Gen Z drinkers that life is more adventurous when you embrace people’s difference and join together cider-by-cider. Along this journey, the brand’s highly distinctive brand world has allowed Old Mout to flex strategy whilst remaining instantly recognisable.