Meet the Muppets

For the launch of its first global campaign, Lipton partnered with Disney puppet characters the Muppets to encourage consumers to “Be More Tea.” During the Academy Awards, the tea brand released a co-branded commercial that featured Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy finding a moment of relaxation amid busy New York streets crowded with multiple iterations of the Animal character by sipping Lipton brewed and ready-to-drink products. “Making movies and dating Miss Piggy can be stressful … but I always try to stay cool and look on the bright side,” said Kermit the Frog in a statement. “That’s what this Lipton campaign is all about. In a world filled with high-stress, wild-in-the-street types like Animal, you have to take time to enjoy life and ‘Be More Tea.’” The spot also teased “Muppets Most Wanted,” which opened in theaters nationwide March 21.

Digital bonding

Jägermeister has created a new way for consumers to rehash their nights out, combine their memories with fellow celebrators, and share the experience with other friends. The brand’s new JägerBonds mobile app combines images and videos from multiple users’ social media posts into a video highlight reel of a group’s night out with Jägermeister. Consumers of legal drinking age can download JägerBonds for free from the iTunes and Google Play stores, connect the app to their Facebook and Instagram accounts, invite the friends they are going out with to join uniquely coded “Bonds,” and then share away. The app works in the background to capture and recreate memories of the night and replay them to popular songs.

Music to my beers

Glassware apparently isn’t just for drinking. Stella Artois partnered with Massachusetts Institute of Technology sonic inventor Andy Cavatorta and indie rock band Cold War Kids to create the Chalice Symphony. In the past year, Cavatorta experimented with hundreds of Stella Artois chalices to craft four musical instruments inspired by elements of the glassware: the Hive, which resembles the sound of a xylophone; the Pryophone, which makes a deep whistling sound like that of a boat horn; the Star Harp, which uses robotics to make harp-like sounds; and the Violina, which sounds like a violin. Cold War Kids then incorporated the instruments into their new song “A Million Eyes.” The Chalice Symphony is a global campaign for the Belgian beer brand that is featured in more than 35 markets.

Think of the children

Wisdom Natural Brands partnered with Project Million to help educate schoolchildren about the importance of healthy eating and drinking. The company donated some of its SweetLeaf Liquid Stevia Sweet Drops to be included in presentations to students about how to replace sugar and artificial sweeteners in their diets.

New Moon

On an otherwise dark night, Blue Moon shed some light on the streets of Brooklyn, N.Y., and the national arts scene. Timed with the new moon on March 1, the beer brand presented an interactive public art installation that raised a moon into the sky at the Dumbo Archway in Brooklyn in response
to fan retweets. Whenever a consumer of legal drinking age retweeted @BlueMoonBrewCo, the moon rose higher. In addition, Blue Moon made a $5 donation for each retweet to Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the arts and arts education. The company donated more than $4,000 through the initiative.  

Cork or screw cap? 

According to a recent market research study on wine closures, 93 percent of U.S. wine consumers associate natural cork with higher-quality wines, while only 11 percent of U.S. wine consumers believe wines sealed with a screw cap are of high quality. And this perception isn’t limited to the United States. Similar results were found in both Germany and Australia. In Germany, 93 percent of wine drinkers associate natural cork with higher-quality wines, and 85 percent of Australians do the same. Furthermore, participants in both the United States and Germany indicated that natural cork is a positive influence on their purchase decisions, whereas screw caps and synthetic closures can deter a purchase. These findings suggest that natural cork stoppers can make a critical difference when it comes to selling premium wines, said Peter Weber, executive director of the Cork Quality Council, in a statement. The Web-based survey was conducted by Tragon Corp. in 2013 and administered to 1,550 consumers throughout the United States, Australia and Germany.

One giant leap for vodka… 

French company La Martiniquaise launched a bottle of its Poliakov Vodka into space in an attempt to reach the coldest temperature in the universe: the K Degree. To do so, the company attached a glass bottle of the vodka to a balloon with a metallic structure underneath and sent it up into the Earth’s stratosphere from an observation center. The bottle reached an altitude of more than 20 miles in 37 minutes. The trip was recorded using an onboard camera and can be viewed on YouTube and Facebook.

Shopping digitally and physically

Nearly 70 percent of consumers now use mobile devices while shopping, according to research by The NPD Group. To help brands and retailers engage with these shoppers, Qliktag Software Inc. launched its Qliktag in-store mobile merchandising platform. The digital platform allows businesses to create mobile experiences and promotions for each individual SKU. Consumers then can access the promotions and product information by using their smartphones to connect using standard barcodes, quick-response (QR) codes, near-field communication (NFC) tags, Bluetooth or Apple iBeacons. For instance, craft brewer Butcher’s Brewing recently implemented a mobile activation for its customers using Qliktag, which allowed consumers to learn more about the beers they were sampling. While in the digital platform, users also could share the page on social media, generating buzz for Butcher’s and enhancing the drinking experience for its customers.