Create a seasonal cider that would reignite our fans.

El Chavo, one of our longest running ciders, was touched with habanero spice, but had been declining in popularity for years. Could we bring back the fire with a seasonal that had a new spicy profile?

A combination of the El Chavo cult following fans and cider drinkers that were looking for something unexpected to hit their pallet that hadn’t been exposed to our classic ciders, like El Chavo and El Chapo (a tequila barrel aged version of Chavo)

Fruit forward FIRST. Watermelon needed to be the foremost design element to sell to our top customer, women between 25-35. El Chavo failed to put mango as a prominent part of the flavor profile in the design.

Keep the edge. Pulling inspiration from other brands that made a visual impact utilizing the skull and bright colors, this packaging came together in a way that was unique to Blake’s lineup. Seasonals often have a more flexible style which allowed us to experiment with how the brand was represented and formatting of our cans. By illustrating this skull I introduced an element we had seen success with in the past: the mascot. Our skull had the potential to grow in character and personality, prepped to represent the heart of the possible spicy cider line.

Ultimately we confirmed that spicy cider was NOT what our customers wanted. While the packaging hit the shelf beautifully and many were drawn in for a first buy, they either turned away at the mention of spice or skipped the re-buy due to disliking the spice level of the drink on their first round. This seasonal was a great example of projects that steer brands to success through failure. It didn’t resonate, but it did give us the information we needed to be able to develop liquid that our customers were excited to buy again and again.