JDO & Brown-Forman Team Up For Jack Daniel’s RTD Packs

10 Jul 2014 --- JDO Brand Design & Innovation have been working with Brown-Forman to redesign ready to drink (RTD) Jack Daniel’s secondary packaging for Australia. The agency won the project as a result of a three-way pitch.

Australia is the world leader in alcoholic RTD, representing 60% of the global market.  Jack Daniel’s is the definitive premium dark spirit. The premixed can and bottle portfolio offer an entry level into the legendary brand and provides the ‘perfect pour’ with instant access to an optimal mix of the whiskey and a choice of three different flavour variants; cola, ginger and lemonade.

JDO were charged with enhancing the premium cues of Jack Daniel’s RTD whilst also disrupting the category and increasing refreshment cues. RTDs typically source volume from beer, of which refreshment is a key driver in the category.  Jack Daniel’s had been first to market and market leader in RTDs in Australia, but with a host of copycats now in the category, Jack Daniel’s needed to stand out again as the world’s No. 1 whiskey brand.

The new JDO design direction challenges the tradition of Jack Daniel’s with a big iconic representation of the brand including angled brand crops and disruptive ‘rip’ design devices revealing the mix variant on the canvas below. RTD is traditionally a very dark category with lots of black colourways and dark colour palettes. The recent launch of ‘noisier’ packs meant that Jack Daniel’s RTD needed to work harder to stand out in a ‘sea of noise’ on shelf.

Ray Smith, JDO creative director said, “The challenge was to add new characteristics to what is one of the biggest brands in the world, a brand that is synonymous with effortless cool and quality crafting.  Our aim was to establish a standalone characterful brand extension that reflected ‘The perfect mix’ in a bold, confident and modern way. We needed to strike a balance between disrupting the market and retaining the tradition, provenance and heritage of the Jack Daniel’s brand.”
 
Matt Harada, Group Marketing Manager at Brown Forman, commented, “JDO understands the Jack Daniels brand and the advanced state of the Australian market in terms of RTD, compared to the US and the UK.  The team ‘got’ the brief straightaway and as a result we have now started working with JDO on several of our other major brands.”