By Will Novosedlik

The next time you start suspecting that your partner is maybe cheating on you, there’s, apparently, a new, very easy and inexpensive way to find out. Give them a can of Molson Coors Simply Spiked Lemonade – the world’s first lie-detector-in-a-can.

In its search for customer insights that can be leveraged to support new product development, Molson Coors probed the Canadian psyche for emotional truths that would resonate with potential customers. In a country-wide survey, they learned that in a country that’s famous for being polite, just over half (51%) of Canadians 19+ have lied to avoid conflict or to protect someone’s feelings.

So what has lying got to do with lemonade?

Simply Spiked Lemonade’s core value proposition is that unlike other alcoholic coolers, it’s made with real fruit juice. It’s not fake or a lie. It’s got an authentic fruit flavour that, according to Molson Coors, is “shaking up alcohol cooler aisles across the country.” To drive home the authenticity message, the company worked in partnership with their communications agency, Citizen Relations, and creative technologist, Hugh Elliott, to create the Keep it Real Can. As Joy Ghosh, VP of marketing for above premium flavour at Molson Coors, says, “We wanted Canadians from coast to coast to stop lying just to spare people’s feelings, and start keeping it real.”

Featuring a galvanic skin response to monitor sweat gland activity and pulse rate electrodes to measure heartbeat, the Simply Spiked Keep It Real Can is able to determine when someone is lying, just like a real polygraph would. As tactical novelties go, you can’t say this isn’t a clever, if elaborate gimmick.

But the Keep It Real Can has been well received by consumers so far, and activations are planned across the country throughout the summer – including at the Calgary Stampede, the Toronto Festival of Beer and Osheaga – so Canadians can test it for themselves. When asked what Molson Coors is hoping to achieve with it, Ghosh replies, “Our main goal is to drive brand awareness, and, ultimately, sales, for a new-to-Canada product. Simply Spiked has a fun, cheeky brand tone and we wanted to make sure that this came across in a breakthrough way.”

The cooler shelf is an ever more crowded space, so it doesn’t take a marketing genius to know that standing out demands attention-getting tactics like this one. Says Ghosh, “The ‘ready-to-drink’ category is extremely competitive, with legacy brands holding share across a variety of categories like White Claw, Twisted Tea, and Smirnoff.”

Every year, new entrants try to tap into evolving consumer preferences and make a splash in hopes of carving out some space within the category.  “We are no different here at Molson Coors. We’ve developed a growing portfolio across various segments with Arizona Hard being the fastest growing Hard-Tea nationally, Vizzy Hard Seltzer and Coors Seltzer collectively on track to deliver 15% share of seltzers.” And their newest addition, Simply Spiked, is gaining momentum as the fastest growing cooler in Canada.

With RTD being such an explosive category, a big question is whether Simply Spiked is a response to consumer fatigue or to a continued demand for new products. Says Ghosh, “While RTD has seen great expansion, a significant portion of this growth over the past couple of years has been attributable to the seltzer, better-for-you segment. As consumer trends shift, we are seeing a desire for more full-flavoured offerings. We identified a space to lean into in these shifting consumer trends and partnered with a leading juice brand to bring the right dose of realness into the category.”

Molson’s approach to product development has seen it invest in well beyond its iconic beer brands Molson and Miller Lite (which recently took the #1 spot in North American beer sales from Bud Light). The strategy is to continue to support its core seltzer and flavour brands while leaning into new flavour innovations to attract new drinkers and drive growth back to its trademarks.

When it comes to Simply Spiked Lemonade, Molson is leveraging the popularity of Coca-Cola owned Simply juice, which has been commonly used as a mixer. It just made sense to turn that behaviour into a product. And who knows, Simply Spiked may be the fastest growing lie detector in the polygraph market to boot. Win-win!