beverages

7Up Promotes Itself As A Mixer, Recipe Ingredient

With sales of carbonated soft drinks eclipsed by bottled water and other beverages, 7Up is the latest CSD brand to switch marketing gears.

7Up’s new campaign is focused on encouraging consumers to use the soda as a drink mixer and to add sparkle to recipes ranging from bundt cake to marinades.

The “Mix It UP a Little” campaign, from Deutsch, is launching today with the first of two humorous TV spots, “Yacht.” 

In this one, which has 15- and 30-second versions, a voiceover informs a couple about 7Up’s mixing versatility, as they’re shown transported to novel scenarios — including the yacht of the rapper 2 Chainz (above). 

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The second spot, “Granny” (below), takes three seniors from pinochle night to an underground fight club, where they encounter someone they never expected to see again. That 30-second ad is set to make its television debut on April 24.

The campaign also includes digital videos, from The Richards Group, featuring “Sir Mix-a-Lot” demonstrating how to make a variety of 7Up-infused cocktails and recipes. Those are being promoted on 7Up’s Web site and social media channels, including YouTube.

The lemon/lime Dr Pepper Snapple Group brand, which had long targeted consumers over 35, switched in 2014 to targeting Millennials via a marketing push centered around electronic dance music. 

Now, research apparently has confirmed the wisdom of returning to older consumers, and expanding an existing propensity to use 7Up as a mixer. 

While other CSD brands have in recent times promoted cocktail recipes using their products as mixers, none in recent memory have explicitly used that theme as the primary focus of their ads.

"We didn't need to look far to realize that people have been using 7Up as a component of their concoctions for decades,” said Kevin Brandvold, director of marketing for the brand. “We wanted to acknowledge that truth and elevate all the ways in which consumers are enjoying our product.”

“This is a positioning no brand in the category has taken, and it's a bold one for 7Up,” added Deutsch executive creative director Brett Craig.

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