White Claw® Refreshes Social Connections with New Global Brand Platform

Hard seltzer is one of the alcohol industry’s biggest success stories of recent times, and most of that success is down to one brand: White Claw^®. The surge in White Claw sales at the end of the 2010s put the brand, and the category it pioneered, firmly on the consumer map. Now a well-established part of the alcoholic drinks landscape, White Claw’s customer base stretches across age groups and demographics. But it’s also well known as one of the iconic Gen Z brands, coming to prominence as this generation began to hit legal drinking age and catching on among 20-somethings who wanted a lighter tasting, more flavorful alternative to existing drinks.

Whether planned or not, White Claw has a “spokesbrand for a generation” status of sorts, and it’s that link to these consumers that animates their newest campaign, “Grab Life By The Claw™.” Gen Z have grown up with social media at their fingertips, with screen time often replacing real-life relationship building. “Grab Life By The Claw” aims to reignite and elevate socializing among a new wave of drinkers, a generation that was hit especially hard by the pandemic.

This higher-level mission to combat reduced socialization and loneliness isn’t spelled out, of course. Instead, the ad from agency VCCP shows rather than tells, with a White Claw Variety Pack being the impetus for gathering a diverse bunch of friends to hang out and enjoy life (and hard seltzer) together. It’s an ad absolutely packed with human connection and what Orlando Wood calls ‘between-ness’ – the glances, gestures and non-verbal communication that attracts the attention of the right brain and makes ads more effective long-term. Also helping is a fresh, upbeat soundtrack – last year’s TikTok smash “Lil Boo Thang,” built on a melodic 70s disco sample which helps older viewers connect to the ad too.

Conviviality and getting together is a tried-and-true theme for drinks ads in all categories, and White Claw has found a strong variation on it by showing the group in the act of getting together. It gives the ad momentum and also works as a way to keep the packaging and brand prominent.

That prominence is reflected in the strong Brand Fluency scores and exceptional short-term Spike scores the ad achieves – this is a well-branded, highly motivating piece of work. The ad also scores well above the average on long-term Star Rating, 3.7-Stars versus the overall US average of only 2.1-Stars. So it’s doing a very good brand building job too.

But as we’ve talked about before with alcoholic drinks Ad Of The Week features, the drinks category is a complex one with a high number of category refusers, so it’s worth also testing drinks ads with a tighter sample of category users. White Claw did this in a Test Your Ad Pro+ test through System1. Among hard seltzer drinkers “Grab Life By The Claw” remained just as strong for Fluency and exceptional for short-term Spike Rating. But its Star Rating jumped from 3.7-Stars to a very strong 4.9-Stars.

This matters because it shows the brand is connecting emotionally with its core audience, who respond even more strongly to the work. You can see this by looking at the key associations report from the test, which tracks the spontaneous associations viewers make with the ad. The associations are all to do with the emotional tone and action – “having a good time,” “living in the moment,” and “friends getting together”. It tells you that White Claw is on target in its aim to appeal to Gen Z.

“It’s exciting to showcase White Claw at the center of social connection and for this message of togetherness to resonate so strongly with consumers.” said Isabelle Sakai, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Mark Anthony Brands International. “System1’s testing reinforced our confidence in the ‘Grab Life By The Claw’ platform.”

“When White Claw launched in 2019, it disrupted the liquor category and became a symbol of the new ways people were getting together.” said Darren Bailes, Global Chief Creative Officer at VCCP. “This campaign exemplifies the value of social connection, of ‘Grabbing Life By The Claw’ in everyday moments.”

Please Drink Responsibly.

Hard Seltzer with Flavors. All registered trademarks used under license by White Claw Seltzer Works, Chicago, IL. Nutritional information available at whiteclaw.com