• by Larissa Faw , February 22, 2021

Mike’s Hard Lemonade has appointed WorkInProgress as creative agency of record. Havas Chicago previously serviced the account.

WIP will be responsible for campaign development and execution across the three brands that make up the Mike’s portfolio: Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Mike’s Harder Lemonade, and its latest offering, Mike’s Hard Lemonade Seltzer.

Along with the shift in creative AOR, media planning and buying has moved to Haworth Media.

MSL will retain PR duties for Mike’s, and Epsilon will stay on to handle shopper marketing.

In its first work for Mike’s Hard Lemonade, WIP jumped on a recent pop cultural moment that went viral. To illustrate how a hard day calls for a Mike’s Hard Lemonade. The shop launched an organic and paid digital effort that incorporated “unreleased footage” from the Zoom Cat Lawyer fail video.

Additional creative under this new partnership will launch in March and continue throughout the year.

“It’s not often you get to introduce a Hard Lemonade Seltzer made by Hard Lemonade experts because it’s never happened before,” said Matt Talbot, CCO, WIP.

The company spent $9.12 million on advertising in 2019, while 2020’s figures were severely handicapped by the pandemic, totaling a mere $189,000, according to Kantar Media.

“With the upcoming launch of Mike’s Hard Lemonade Seltzer, we need smart and engaging creative to stand out in what’s become a very crowded market,” said John Shea, the CMO at Mike’s Hard Lemonade. “WIP’s action-based approach will help us successfully launch Mike’s Hard Lemonade Seltzer and allow us to continue to build on the tremendous growth the Mike’s portfolio has experienced.