Incremental innovation and clear brand identity were running themes throughout Boston Beer’s presentation to wholesalers in Los Angeles last week.
Boston Beer shared an edited recording of the meeting with Brewbound this week. The peek at Boston Beer’s 2024 plans for its brands comes less than a week after the company’s Q3 earnings call with investors, which included several declines and adjusted full-year guidance.
Below are some of the highlights from the meeting, which included presentations on Samuel Adams, Angry Orchard, Truly Hard Seltzer and Twisted Tea. No comments were shared on Hard MTN Dew.
Look out for separate coverage of Boston Beer’s plans for Dogfish Head’s beer and canned cocktails.
Samuel Adams to Focus on NA and Seasonals
The theme for Boston Beer’s Samuel Adams strategy will be “simplify, stabilize and modernize” as the brand celebrates its 40th anniversary, Samuel Adams brand director Lauren Price shared on stage.
Modernization includes a packaging “cleanup,” with a “younger, more modern Sam the Man” logo and expanding the size of the Samuel Adams shield logo. The company is also simplifying its programming from more than 20 in 2023, to six in 2024.
“The first 40 years were strong and the brands have been built up into really something special, but what I want to say today is that we really are just getting started,” Price said. “It’s been a tough few years recently for craft, we know that, but we have some plans that really are going to help us turn around.”
Samuel Adams’ core portfolio includes seasonal bottle and can 12-packs, seasonal bottle 6-packs, Boston Lager bottle and can 12-packs and bottle 6-packs, and a seasonal variety 12-pack, available only in cans starting in Q2 2024. The company is discontinuing its seasonal variety 12-pack of bottles, and Wicked Easy wheat lager can 6-packs.
For brand focus, Price centered her presentation on seasonals and Samuel Adams’ non-alcoholic (NA) offerings.
For seasonals, the company is expanding its Groundhog Day campaign that started in 2023, penning a 3-year partnership with Punxsutawney Phil, as well as a partnering with DraftKings to allow fans to bet on if Phil will see his shadow.
For NA, Boston Beer is targeting 1.5 million cases of Just the Haze nationally by the end of 2025. The NA beer is the No. 3 NA craft beer in California and is in 34% of accounts in the state, according to Price. Boston Beer plans to use Just the Haze as a way to bring younger drinks to the Samuel Adams brand.
Boston Beer is also introducing American Light, a light lager with “pleasant floral notes, balanced by a light sweetness.” The brand will be released in nine regions in early 2024.
Angry Orchard Going Back to Its Roots
Angry Orchard has “lost its way,” brand director Jon London told wholesalers. London returned to Boston Beer earlier this year after more than six years away from the company.
To bring energy back to the brand, Angry Orchard is “going back to [its] roots” and changing its marketing and innovation strategies.
Included in this new strategy, Boston Beer is targeting younger legal drinking age consumers for Angry Orchard, with an emphasis on the hard cider brand’s sessionability, while still having “bold flavor.” Boston Beer will roll out national college programming for Angry Orchard across 30-40 campuses in 2024, and has partnered with Betches, a women-founded digital media company that reaches more than 50 million consumers across its podcast and social media channels, London said.
Boston Beer is also increasing its media spend for Angry Orchard by +80% in 2024, as well as marketing through a 12-month ongoing partnership with Fireball, and marketing campaigns on Snapchat and Instagram.
For Angry Orchard innovation, Boston Beer is expanding its flagship Crisp Apple into a brand family, including Crisp Imperial, an 8% ABV version that launched this month. In February, the company will launch Crisp Light, a 4.3% version with 6 grams of sugar and 120 calories.
The strategy is a “fundamental shift” from Boston Beer’s previous Angry Orchard innovation plans, London said.
“If you look at our innovation plan over the past few years, it’s been very focused on fruit ciders,” London said. “Fruit ciders worked extremely well for the local and regional ciders, they haven’t worked as well for us.
“Our thought is, why not innovate around not what the competition does well, but what we do well, and that’s all about Crisp Apple,” he continued.
Crisp Apple accounts for 84% of Angry Orchard’s total brand volume in California, and would account for 35% of total cider sales in the state if it was its own brand, London said.
Angry Orchard will also have a “renewed focus on personality” and “putting the ‘angry’ back in Angry Orchard.”
“The brand lost a little bit of what made it special: that sort of edge and attitude,” London said.
To bring that edge back, Angry Orchard will have an “Angry Season” campaign starting in fall 2024. Angry Orchard will also launch a new variety pack next year that will include a new limited-time offering.
Discontinued SKUs for 2024 include Dark Cherry 6-packs, Peach Mango 6-packs, Tropical 6-packs and 12-pack bottle variety packs.
Truly Changes Marketing Tagline Again, to ‘Keep It Light’
Boston Beer divisional director of sales Whitney Stevenson and Truly brand director Matt Withington made sure to celebrate the positives for Truly in 2023, despite the hard seltzer brand’s declines this year.
Truly continues to trail No. 1 hard seltzer brand Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw, and spent most of 2023 down -30%. However, the brand is still 1.5 times larger than any other hard seltzer brand beyond White Claw, Stevenson said.
2024 will be a “clean slate” for Truly, with the brand no longer lapsing heavy comps from Truly Margarita or Truly Punch that accounted for more than half of the brand’s declines this year, and will mark when Truly moves from defense to offense, Withington said.
Boston Beer will spend more per case on Truly media in 2024 than 2023. The company is also altering its “Lightly Fantastic” campaign from 2023, to “Keep It Light,” to continue its focus on Truly’s lightly flavored offerings.
Boston Beer also plans to stabilize its bolder flavors, with the help of a reformulated recipe that no longer includes Stevia.
For innovation, Boston Beer is focused on offerings that create incrementality for Truly, including:
- Truly Party Pack in January 2024 (Watermelon, Citrus Squeeze, Pineapple and a new Raspberry);
- Three limited time offerings – Truly Celebrations Pack (with the return of Rosé), Truly Getaway Pack and Truly Red, White & Tru;
- And a fall pack with exclusive Cotton Candy.
As previously reported, Boston Beer is also focused on Truly Unruly, its 8% ABV extension. The offering will launch in February 2024 with a variety 12-pack with four flavors – Tropical Smash, Berry Blast, Citrus Crush and Strawberry Smash – and two single-serve offerings.
Withington confirmed that Truly Extra, Truly’s original higher ABV extension, has been discontinued.
For Truly’s spirit-based offerings, Boston Beer is aiming to be the No. 2 player in California behind E. & J. Gallo’s High Noon Sun Sips, requiring the brand to overtake Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Nütrl. To do so, the company will make no “major changes” in 2024 to Truly Vodka Soda, after making several alterations to the formula and packaging in 2023. The vodka-based ready-to-drink canned cocktail brand will receive increased media spend and built out distribution in 2024.
Boston Beer will also increase support for Truly Tequila Soda, its tequila-based extension that is available in select markets. The brand launched this year with little marketing support and quickly outpaced Truly’s existing spirits-based SKUs, Withington said. In 2024, the brand will have full media support and expanded distribution.
Twisted Tea to Continue With ‘All Gas, No Brakes’
Twisted Tea continues to be the darling for Boston Beer, increasing sales velocity in California +79% in the last 13 weeks (ending October 2), according to brand director Erica Taylor. The hard tea brand is the ninth-largest beer brand family in California, and continues to gain incremental growth, with 5% of its California consumer base identifying as new Twisted Tea drinkers, Taylor shared.
Twisted Tea’s mantra for 2024 is “All Gas, No Brakes,” continuing the brand’s momentum across both the on- and off-premise, Taylor said.
For 2024 innovation, Twisted Tea plans to not “get distracted by smaller innovation” and instead “play like a mass domestic beer,” with packages targeting different occasions, Taylor said.
Boston Beer will also focus on incremental innovation for Twisted Tea, with a similar strategy to the launch of Twisted Tea Light, its lower-calorie offering that was launched on a national level this year, and has provided 75% to 80% incremental growth, with little cannibalization, Taylor said.
Boston Beer will expand on Twisted Tea Light with a new nationally distributed variety pack.
Other innovation focuses include:
- Twisted Tea Mangonada;
- Twisted Tea Black Cherry;
- And Twisted Tea Extreme (8% ABV).
Additionally, Twisted Tea Party Pack will return with Rocket Pop, along with two new package formats for Rocket Pop – a 1.3 gallon Party Pouch and a 24-can variety pack.