Growers Cider is undergoing a rebrand thats leans into friendship and camaraderie as it celebrates a century of production with the launch of a premium SKU.

British Columbia’s first commercial cidery launched in 1922, the brainchild of five farmer friends. Now an Arterra brand, Growers wants Canadians to get friendly with one another using a pack icebreaker playing cards featuring “would you rather?”-type queries, in addition to its top of line work.

Consumers who make a $30 Wine Rack purchase that includes Growers online will receive the free “Friendship Growers Kit,” while supplies last.

The game is informed by Pinterest insights that searches for ‘”icebreaker activities” have increased 2.6 times since last year, while searches for “questions to get to know someone” have increased by 37% during the same time.

As part of the relaunch of the entire brand, there’s also all new advertising, new packaging and influencer marketing, says Sandra Smith, senior marketing contractor at Arterra Wines Canada. She says that the brand wants to be a point of celebration as people yearn to reconnect post-COVID, and that its origin story is both a local one and about friendship.

Also understanding younger consumers’ affinity toward local products, Growers is making it clear that its products are made with 100% Ontario and B.C. fruit in each market, and making the fruit the hero visual on all cans.

The organization has new digitally-led communication across the entire brand, with a new product, Century Dry, among those being heroed in the campaign.

Century Dry is a limited-time premium offering that Smith expects to have legs beyond this campaign. “This one speaks to the more premium and the fact that this is a very authentic and classic cider,” she says. With a black and gold colour scheme, she says it harkens back to the earlier, more “stately” origins of the drink.

On the packaging side, Growers is celebrating with a “new, energetic look across its beverage offerings,” and is leaning into “ripe for chillin'” positioning. 

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The company also recently added a Sparkling Spritz Watermelon Lavender drink (pictured, above, left).

The whole portfolio, meanwhile, checks the refreshment and better-for-you boxes, Smith says. The cider drinker profile overlaps with those looking at RTDs, although she says they don’t live in one category or the other. Growers is looking to appeal to a “refreshment drinker.”

The campaign is largely socially and digitally-led, with some OOH in British Columbia.

For Arterra, Smith says it has had a “strong focus” on ciders, and this is the biggest support for the Growers brand in recent years.

Arterra worked with Media Profile on the icebreaker game, while Dentsu did creative work and Jacknife handled the new packaging.