Mercury Hard Cider

Mercury Cider is Australia’s oldest cider brand, being registered in 1911. However at the time of briefing, the brand had been facing major issues with a declining distribution footprint, low visibility and brand awareness. With a repositioning to be  “Cider from a harder time”, part of the strategic solution was to also develop an NPD that would break the mould of conventional ciders: a high-alcohol cider would straddle both the dark spirit RTD and cider categories. In order for this NPD to work, there could be no pretty colours, trees, nature graphics or “craft/natural” typography. Instead, the brand would need to reflect the high alcohol content and incorporate dark spirits RTD language.

Denomination’s strategic solution was to use the American term “Hard Cider” for this NPD to give it a point of differentiation to the competitors in Australia but also align to the brand positioning. The reinforcement of Mercury’s heritage through the use of “original”, “built to last over one hundred years” and “Est 1911 Hobart Tas” gave consumers authenticity cues. So too did the retro nature of the typography. The 6.9% alcohol content was increased in terms of prominence under Hard Cider as well as size. The black colour, silver and red colour palette subliminally connected to dark spirits RTDs.

The success of this new hard cider NPD single-handedly helped turn around the fortunes of the parent brand Mercury and pioneered a completely new category in the cider market. With no advertising or promotional support, in two years from launch, Mercury Hard Cider sold over 5.46 million cans, and in one year grew by 40.4%. These impressive results won us a trophy in the DBA Design Effectiveness Awards.