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Only Cans - The Relaunch of West Coast Cooler

West Coast Cooler, the iconic wine cooler born in the ‘80s and sassy older sister of modern seltzer, came to THINKHOUSE with an exciting brief: celebrate the relaunch of the brand and its new look packaging, and make it relevant again to a new audience looking for refreshment. While also reminding its OG audience that West Coast Cooler still tastes great.

Available in a new look bottle and, for the first time, in a can format, THINKHOUSE decided to relaunch the brand via a pop-up delivery subscription service with a cheeky, youth-focused name: Only Cans.

The approach focused on West Coast Cooler’s iconic cultural heritage and the important role friendship plays, drawing on new research carried out by MCCP. This work explored the new consumer mindset of the target audience around the ready-to-drink category and the brand. The Youth Lab at THINKHOUSE then developed the brand strategy while THINKHOUSE developed the creative campaign.

To help launch the Only Cans subscription service, we partnered with Irish comedian (and OG West Coast Cooler fan) Emma Doran. Emma is the comic voice of a new generation of Irish women and the perfect influencer to appeal to the older and younger target audiences and promote the competition to win an Only Cans subscription, which was open to entries through the newly revamped West Coast Cooler Instagram page.

The winners of the subscription received a limited-edition West Coast Cooler ‘Bag of Cans’ tote (designed by THINKHOUSE), with a selection of West Coast Cooler Original and Rosé inside and the promise of further deliveries of West Coast Cooler throughout a #CoolerSummer, all best served with friends in the sparkle of great company.

Following the media launch with Emma Doran, we gifted 50 media and influencers with their own ‘Bag of Cans’. The campaign garnered 287 pieces of coverage including 13 high-profile media pieces. The total combined reach for the campaign was 6,439,021.

Laura Kerr, Assistant Brand Manager, said: “West Coast Cooler has been a consistent consumer favourite since its inception in 1984. It’s a brand that is much loved and it deserved some new love. THINKHOUSE created an exciting, culturally-relevant campaign with Only Cans and Emma Doran was the perfect partner to help launch it. We can’t wait to see how our original consumers and a new generation will enjoy the revamped brand look and feel.”

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