• by Steve Ellwanger , January 20, 2023

Hard seltzer brand leader White Claw is bringing its Shore Club interactive lounge experience to the United States for the first time with an activation at the ongoing Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 19-Jan. 29).

The White Claw Shore Club is billed as a premium lounge experience that hosts live music performances and local artists’ exhibitions, along with giveways that include customized White Claw beanies

In other White Claw Sundance news, the company is debuting a 30-second commercial, which will air in between every five films premiering at the festival.

The ad features emerging artist Erica Hinck, an Asian-American filmmaker and photographer.

Shot in black and white, the video shows Hinck rising at dawn and trudging through snow in the mountains.

“The film itself shows a cinematographer's resolve to capture a winter sunrise and highlights the effort it takes to be best in one’s class,” Kevin Brady, vice president of regional integrated marketing for White Claw, tells Marketing Daily. “To double down on our support of the next wave of creators, we tapped award-winning cinematographer Laura M. Gonçalves to direct our 30-second film for Sundance.”

White Claw became the official hard seltzer of Sundance in a multiyear sponsorship deal announced in 2021.

This is the first year since 2020 that Sundance is being held ln Park City, Utah with a choice of live or virtual attendance, as opposed to strictly virtual.

The brand’s most recent Shore Club event was held last month in the Australian beachside community of Manly.

According to data from NielsenIQ, White Claw had a 46.8% dollar share of the U.S. hard seltzer market of in the four weeks ended Dec. 31, followed by Truly with 25.1%