The college football season kicked off last weekend – including a soul crushing loss for Nebraska Cornhusker fans in Ireland – and will go into full throttle this Labor Day weekend. For those watching at home, Boston Beer Company’s Twisted Tea will be heavily featured this weekend and throughout the season.
Boston Beer’s playbook for Twisted Tea includes a 360-degree marketing “Tea Drop” campaign, with new 15- and 30-second TV spots that will be featured across the major networks airing college football games – ABC, ESPN and CBS.
This year’s ads focus on at-home celebrations, while last year’s focused on tailgating at stadiums. The spots feature Twisted Tea spokesman Billy Grotto and his dog, Tank, riding in a branded helmet golf cart during a drop with “Twisted Tea superfans,” who were plucked from the brand’s social channels and flown into the commercial shoot.
According to Boston Beer, Twisted Tea’s tailgating-focused campaign last year posted +30% year-over-year growth during the 2021 college football season (September-December IRI multi-outlet and convenience), including increased awareness, display activity and +31.2% increased household penetration.
For the 2022 season, Twisted Tea will extend into the postseason during the conference championships for the conference championship games of the Pac-12, Big 12, ACC and SEC, and the College Football Playoffs. The company will also run the Tea Drop ads on Discovery, TBS, A&E, NFL Network, as well as streaming on HBO Max, Hulu, and Peacock, among others.
In addition to the ads, Boston Beer is releasing a Twisted Tea “Game Day Party Pack” variety 12-pack (original, half & half, peach and raspberry) nationwide. The brand will also leverage the intellectual property of five universities – the Georgia Bulldogs, Florida Gators, University of Illinois Fighting Illini, Tennessee Volunteers Athletics and Michigan State Spartans – with packaging featuring the logs in those regions. Additionally, the company has signed a multi-year deal with the Pac-12 for football.
Finally, Boston Beer is partnering with fantasy sports and sportsbook FanDuel for free-to-play contests throughout the season in a “custom Twisted Tea mini sportsbook.” The company is also working with podcaster and WWE SmackDown color commentator Pat McAfee for segments on the Pat McAfee Show.
The focus on college football comes as Twisted Tea – the best-selling FMB – is now the 11th best-selling brand in multi-outlet and convenience stores tracked by market research firm IRI over the last 13-week period, ending August 7.
Year-to-date through August 7, off-premise dollar sales of the Twisted Tea brand family are up +28.4%, to more than $521.2 million, in IRI tracked multi-outlet and convenience stores. The Twisted Tea family holds a 1.91% share of the beer category sales through the first seven months of 2022. Over the last four weeks, sales have accelerated +41.9%, IRI reported.
Three Twisted Tea SKUs rank among the Top 100 selling brands year-to-date in IRI, including Original (+18.2%, $274.3 million), Half & Half (+22%, $119 million), and Party Pack (+123.2%, nearly $55.8 million).
In a recent drill down on Boston Beer trends, Cowen’s Vivien Azer wrote that “[Twisted] Tea is not big enough yet to serve as the next growth driver for the company” but it “has that potential.” According to Azer’s estimates, Twisted Tea accounts for 38% of Boston Beer’s revenues in NielsenIQ-tracked channels, compared to 44% for hard seltzer, which is down from a 60% peak in July 2021.
Azer anticipates that Twisted Tea will drive growth “from both distribution gains and as well as velocity.”
“While Twisted is the #1 FMB in the country, distribution remains a key opportunity, as SAM expanded shelf space by 28% in 2Q22, having achieved national distribution for 12-pack Twisted Tea in 1Q22,” she wrote. “National retailer support and promotions should continue to drive higher depletions and shelf space.”
Velocity is also an opportunity for Twisted Tea as consumers migrate to multi-packs, Azer added.
“To be sure, the brand was built on single-serve which still accounts for 45% of Twisted’s revenues in Nielsen-tracked channels (down from 55% five years ago),” she wrote. “However, we can see that multi-packs, and in particular 12-packs are gaining momentum (and now account for 48% of the brand’s revenues).”
With its recent momentum, Twisted Tea still has “far lower” household penetration, distribution and brand awareness compared to its “primary competitors,” Boston Beer CEO Dave Burwick said during the company’s Q2 earnings call last month. He said there is “still a lot of upside to grow the brand,” but he has “learned over the last year or so never to predict anything at all.”