Flavor-driven brands dominated the top 25 new beer category products of 2022, according to Bump Williams Consulting’s (BWC) February report.
Of the top 25 best-selling new products, 12 were flavored malt beverages (FMBs) and six were hard seltzers. Four imports made the list, as did two craft offerings and one domestic premium.
“Right out of the gate you can see that the overwhelming majority of innovation leaders were flavor-forward,” BWC founder Bump Williams wrote.
The No. 1 new product was Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw Surf variety pack ($74 million, 2 million cases in NielsenIQ-tracked off-premise outlets), followed by Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light Next ($71.7 million, 2.33 million cases), New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger Juice Force ($67.6 million, 1.46 million cases), Molson Coors’ Simply Spiked Lemonade variety pack ($62.3 million, 1.78 million cases), and Boston Beer Company’s Hard MTN Dew variety pack ($40 million, 1.16 million cases).
In addition to Simply Spiked Lemonade and Hard MTN Dew, the following FMBs also cracked the list:
- No. 7 Mark Anthony Brands’ Cayman Jack Margarita variety pack ($35.4 million, 1 million cases);
- No. 8 Mark Anthony Brands’ Mike’s Hard Freeze variety pack ($32.8 million, 946,019 cases);
- No. 12 Pabst Brewing’s Jack Daniel’s Country Cocktails variety pack ($12.8 million, 340,740 cases);
- No. 14 Mark Anthony Brands’ Mike’s Harder Half Tea Half Lemonade ($10.1 million, 255,442 cases);
- No. 17 Diageo’s Smirnoff Ice Smash Pink Lemonade ($8.8 million, 228,418 cases);
- No. 18 Mark Anthony Brands’ Mike’s Hard Lemonade Blue Freeze ($7.7 million, 253,093 cases);
- No. 21 A-B’s Neon Burst Punch Blast ($5.25 million, 155,480 cases);
- No. 22 Molson Coors’ Simply Spiked Strawberry Lemonade ($5.1 million, 131,229 cases);
- No. 23 Molson Coors’ Simply Spiked Signature Lemonade ($4.6 million, 117,536 cases);
- And No. 25 FIFCO USA’s Seagram’s Escapes variety pack ($4.4 million, 134,123 cases)
Leading hard seltzer innovation products following White Claw Surf included:
- No. 6 Molson Coors’ Topo Chico Hard Seltzers Margarita variety pack ($39.6 million, 1.15 million cases);
- No. 9 Molson Coors’ Vizzy Hard Seltzer Mimosa variety pack ($21.8 million, 644,257 cases);
- No. 10 A-B’s Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer Essentials variety pack ($21.4 million, 607,035 cases);
- No. 12 Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw Refrshr Hard Seltzer Lemonade ($16.9 million, 458,075 cases);
- And No. 19 Diageo’s Smirnoff Seltzer variety pack ($5.7 million, 172,133 cases).
Offerings from Constellation Brands made up 75% of the best-selling imports:
- No. 11 Modelo Chelada Naranja Picosa ($19.6 million, 471,746 cases);
- No. 16 Modelo Chelada variety pack ($9.3 million, 253,093 cases);
- No. 21 Modelo Oro ($5.4 million, 153,876 cases).
At No. 24, Diageo’s Guinness 0 Non-Alcoholic ($4.4 million, 101,097 cases) rounded out the list.
No. 13 Molson Coors’ Blue Moon Light Sky Tropical Wheat ($10.6 million, 313,164 cases) was the other leading craft innovation, in addition to New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger Juice Force.
Of the 25 best-selling new beer category products, Bud Light Next had the highest category weighted distribution at 40.3%, followed by Voodoo Ranger Juice Force (35.4%), White Claw Surf (33%), Topo Chico Margarita (24.3%), and Mike’s Hard Freeze variety pack (22.5%).
RTDs Drive Spirits Innovation
Of the top 25 new spirits category products, 10 were ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails, including:
- No. 1 E. & J. Gallo’s High Noon Sun Sips Pool Pack,
- No. 4 Crown Royal Whisky Lemonade cocktails,
- No. 6 High Noon Sun Sips Lemon,
- No. 7 A-B’s NÜTRL Vodka Seltzer Lemonade variety pack,
- No. 9 Mom Water variety pack,
- No. 11 Jameson Ginger and Lime cocktails,
- No. 14 Boston Beer Company’s Truly Vodka Seltzer variety pack,
- No. 19 Monaco Watermelon Crush cocktails,
- No. 22 Bulleit Old Fashioned cocktails,
- and No. 24 Malibu Pineapple Bay Breeze cocktails.
In addition to the vodka-based RTDs, Boston Beer also launched Truly-branded vodka: No. 20 Truly Pineapple Mango vodka, No. 21 Truly Strawberry Lemonade vodka and No. 23 Truly Wild Berry vodka.
New Products
In both beer and spirits, new products contributed the vast majority of incremental dollar sales. New beer products accounted for 82.6% of incremental sales in 2022. New RTD brands drove 42.1% of incremental sales in the prepared cocktail segment, and new spirits brands contributed 100% of incremental sales among traditional spirits, according to NielsenIQ data BWC shared.
“Spirits was really not that much different from beer, if not even MORE reliant on innovation (namely RTDs) to generate incremental [dollar sales] in 2022, as the collective of pre-existing brands were often a net negative,” Williams wrote. “While ‘traditional’ brands like Tito’s and Fireball managed to post [year-over-year] gains in 2022, a number of fellow category leaders were unable to do the same, leaving RTDs and/or innovation to shoulder more of the load than perhaps usual.”