Inside Kopparberg's 'Outside is Ours': a kite flying break from its underground Swedish roots
Kopparberg hopes its latest campaign platform – a sun-kissed depiction of the outdoor festival life – will mark a graduation from niche Swedish cider into an aspirational, mainstream global brand.
Launching today (14 May), ‘Outside is Ours’ will run on TV, out of home, cinema, digital and social throughout the summer. The flagship film was created by the brand’s long-term agency, 18 Feet & Rising and centres around a gathering of cultural tribes and sculptural kites in the South African wilderness.
The story and supporting campaign were borne out of the insight that consumers think of Kopparberg as a drink to be enjoyed outdoors in the sunshine, which required an aesthetic break away from the darkened clubs and eerie Scandinavian forests of its previous campaigns.
Those settings were reflective of the places its earlier audiences could be found – hidden away bars in locales, such as the hipster paradise Shoreditch. The otherworldly but expansive desert of South Africa’s Cederberg nature reserve, where ‘Outside is Ours’ was filmed, is a representation of Kopparberg’s acceptance that it’s now “a mainstream drink of a generation”, according to senior marketing manager, Rob Salvesen.
“Consumers really embrace the product, more than the brand I would say,” he told The Drum. “What we wanted to do is turn that product love into brand love in so much that they start moving away from a liquid affinity to an emotional connection to the brand."
The need for brand love is all the more pressing now that Kopparberg is no longer the sole purveyor of fruity cider on British shores. It now competes for fridge space with the likes of Old Mout, Stella Artois’ Cidre offering and Swedish rival Rekorderlig in a market that is predicted to get busier: research from brewer Westons predicts fruit ciders will account for half of all ciders sold in the UK by 2022.
“But you’ve also got other drinks like gin and prosecco fighting for that summer drinks space,” added Salvesen. “So, for us, for the longevity of the brand, and creating that emotional connection, is absolutely key.”
Appealing to a mass audience also means gently loosening Kopparberg’s ties to Sweden. When devising the campaign, 18 Feet & Rising’s executive creative director, Will Thacker, was adamant that it wouldn’t be rooted in anything that was, or appeared to be, Swedish be that a “pine forest” or “red wooden clad houses”.
The creative break from communicating the drink’s Scandinavian heritage is one that Salvesen is comfortable with, however, particularly as Swedish values such as “togetherness” and “freedom to roam” remain integral to the latest brand push.
“We’re in a place where we are now inclusive, and we can be anywhere,” he said.
Watch how 'Outside is Ours' was created in the video above.
Additional video editing by Jenny Cleeton.
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