Arizona Hard is tapping into the nostalgia Millennials have for the video store in its latest effort tapping into 90s nostalgia.
The Molson Coors RTD brand opened a speakeasy pop-up themed like a video store in Toronto’s Queen West neighbourhood this past weekend, featuring handcrafted cocktails, mocktails, 90s movie favorites and period-appropriate arcade games.
Lindsay Wilson, the company’s director of brand marketing, seltzer and flavour portfolio, tells strategy that this year marked a decade since most of the video rental stores in Canada closed.
“Trips to the video store on a Friday night were filled with excitement as you walked up and down the aisles with your friends, hoping that that must-see movie hadn’t been scooped up yet,” Wilson says. “Arizona Hard wanted to bring that nostalgic feeling back to Torontonians.”
According to Wilson, the Arizona Hard brand is built around the idea that taking time to play shouldn’t stop when someone reaches adulthood. “Since the brand’s alcohol launch in 2020, we have always incorporated play and moments of nostalgia to adulthood – from 90s-style stereographs to 99 cent bikes and swag that takes us down memory lane.”
The move builds on the success of last year’s pop-up in Montreal.
Last summer, Arizona also opted for a neon, nostalgia-fueled approach to promote its Hard Half & Half Iced Tea Lemonade flavour. It looked to draw Millennial drinkers into the hard tea category, with new product packaging reminiscent of the bright yellow and pink retro style of the ‘90s complete with lemons to highlight the addition of lemonade and differentiate the product from the original Arizona Hard Iced Tea. In 2022, Arizona also repeated its hugely successful 99 cent bike promotion.
A category advantage Arizona Hard has in a fiercely competitive landscape, Wilson explains, is that Arizona is a pre-loved brand. In the 90s, Arizona tea was launched to compete with Keurig Dr. Pepper’s Snapple. Now, it is going after alcoholic beverage drinkers in their early 20s to 40s, “anyone who is pining for nostalgic 90s moments.”
The brand created an earned media strategy that Wilson says helped build buzz around the speakeasy by tapping into culturally relevant conversations surrounding video stores, nostalgia and even speakeasies themselves, which is itself an increasingly popular trend. “In fact, playing on nostalgia is an incredibly effective storytelling strategy right now – psychologists are even suggesting nostalgia is the most powerful emotion of the moment,” Wilson states.
Key media and influencers were invited to preview the event ahead of the official opening to generate a buzz. Arizona shared a seeding kit with Arizona Hard Iced Tea’s and colourful Arizona Hard-designed merch items.
All proceeds from merch and drink sales will be donated to Women in Film and TV Toronto, an organization founded in 1984 that aims to build and advance the careers of members by providing professional development, peer support and mentorship.
This event, Wilson explained, was a great opportunity for the brand to give back to a Toronto-based organization that not only organically aligned with the theme of the pop-up, but more importantly, has made a meaningful difference in advancing female careers in the screen-based media industry.
Playbook managed the pop up experience development and execution. Citizen Relations managed PR for the launch, including the seeding kits, while Volt handled the social media promotion.
