WKD relaunches RTD cocktails with MXD range

UK’s number one selling Ready To Drink brand, WKD, is relaunching their cocktail can range with three new flavours later this month.

Under their newly abbreviated name; WKD MIXD, will now be sold in 250ml slimline, colourful cans at 5% ABV, embedding its personality on the RTS category.

New flavours include, Raspberry, Rhubarb & Vodka, Apple, Elderflower & Gin and Peach, Passionfruit & Rum at £1.69 in both standard and price-marked formats.

The cocktail-in-a-can approach offers consumers the trending convenience of no requirement for individual ingredients, no wastage and easy to carry.

As a major relaunch initiative from brand owner SHS Drinks, WKD MIXD is being supported by significant marketing investment in 2020.

Using the creative theme ‘All MIXD up and ready to go’, a social media campaign will reach over five million consumers; and a social influencer push will utilise a ‘Masters of MIXD-ology’ concept.

WKD superfans will also be rewarded with a range of giveaways online.

To generate rate-of-sale for stockists: 30,000 cases of WKD bottle 10-packs will contain 50p off single-can purchase vouchers; promotional activity with the cashback app CheckoutSmart will offer thousands of free cans to consumers through participating retailers.

The refocussing on WKD MIXD follows the hugely successful recent NPD launches – WKD Pink (July 2019), WKD Dark Fruit (January 2020), WKD Lemon (July 2020) – which have driven category growth.

“In the two years since its original introduction, the WKD range of pre-mixed cocktails has successfully recruited a unique, younger shopper to the RTS can category,” says Nick White, head of marketing at SHS Drinks.

“However, research insight has revealed that we can better leverage the WKD cocktail offering to deliver long-term growth for retailers. We know that consumers naturally transition from bottled RTDs to RTS cocktail cans – seeking higher ABV and a more mature taste - and we have evolved our range to better meet requirements.

“New WKD MIXD offers a range of grown-up flavours, each with a twist, in a convenient canned format and, at 5%, the range delivers the ABV level that consumers are seeking from RTS products.

The enhanced cocktail offering showcases another great example of our category-leading approach: targeting incremental sales for independent retailers through brand innovation.”