ISN'T CIDER BETTER YET?

WHAT SHOULD THE FUTURE OF CIDER LOOK LIKE?

Familiar with the phrase ‘peaked in high school’?

Long before craft beer or craft spirits, cider led the charge when it comes to having an image overhaul in the mid-2000s, moving things on from superstrength park bench sipper, or farmyard scrumpy to modern, LDA+ friendly, trendy session drink of choice. But since then its slipped back into mundanity. Despite numerous flavour spin offs and new product launches, no-one has addressed or updated cider’s now rather tired image for some time. So, what does the future hold?

Magners was a marketing masterclass. Cast your mind back to the sweltering hot summer of 2006, and bottles of this new take on cider were everywhere. The brand was doing something no-one else had cared to do in decades; invest in the cider category. From adverts on every bus stop, to promotions in bars, the Irish cider was there, encouraging drinkers to put ice in their cider for the first time. And its packaging was its secret weapon. At 568ml (a pint to you and I) it was an awkward pour into its deliberately undersized glass, especially with ice, meaning pub goers had to still carry the bottle with them, letting everyone know what they were drinking. Smart.