Blue Moon’s orange garnish gets marketing push
Molson Coors is boosting its Blue Moon beer brand with a marketing ploy that rebrands oranges as ‘BlueMoonGarnish’. db reports.
The Belgian-style wheat ale brewed in Denver, Colorado, by a sub-division of US company Molson Coors, headquartered in Chicago is well known for using Valencia orange peel in the brew since the mid-nineties. The beer is also often served with a full wheel of orange garnish. Now, for its 30th anniversary, the marketing leads at Molson Coors have stated that they are “reimagining the fruit it made famous” by “rebranding them into BlueMoonGarnish”.
Rebranding and reimagining
Speaking to the drinks business, Molson Coors vice president marketing Courtney Benedict said: “Since 1995, Blue Moon and oranges have gone hand in hand, from the Valencia peel in every brew to the signature garnish on the glass. Now, for our 30th anniversary, we’re taking things up a notch by officially rebranding orange as ‘BlueMoonGarnish’. That means complimentary bags of ‘BlueMoonGarnishes’ with your beer and even transforming Chicago and Boston’s Orange Lines into ‘BlueMoonGarnish’ Lines.”
The initiative begins from 10 September and will encourage Blue Moon fans aged 21 and older to visit the Blue Moon Garnish website which goes live from today. Via the site, with the purchase of Blue Moon beer for delivery in Chicago, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Nashville, New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, they will receive a complimentary bag of BlueMoonGarnishes – custom-labelled oranges designed to garnish their Blue Moon beer.
According to Molson Coors, “this isn’t just a name change, it’s a movement”. This means that “wherever you see the colour formerly known as orange, you’ll now see ‘BlueMoonGarnish’”.
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Explaining more about the marketing campaign, Benedict told db that it is simply a “playful way to celebrate how Blue Moon makes the everyday feel a little brighter”.
Last year, US drinkers showed a preference for imported beer for first time and the trend for diverse beer styles and standout serves, such as beers with a dense head of foam like those from the Czech Republic, have continued to capture the imagination of Americans. Other evidence supporting this has been how bars and restaurants in the US have seen a marked rise in draught beer sales “powered by interest in imported brands”.
Looking outside the category to “own” terminology
The Blue Moon beer marketing initiative is not the first time Molson Coors has gone outside of the industry to “own” terminology used across other categories to gain consumer attention. For instance, earlier this year, the beer giant co-marketed a new deodorant in cold-activated packaging as a brand extension of its Coors Light beer brand in an effort to “own chill”.
The advertising for the new Blue Moon campaign can be viewed below.
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