Launching a new Star Wars-themed marketing campaign in Canada, Brisk Iced Tea is.
The iced tea brand is introducing a national marketing campaign in support of a new partnership with LucasFilm around the upcoming 3D theatrical release of Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace.
Lourdes Seminario, marketing director for the Pepsi-Lipton Partnership in Toronto, said that Star Wars is a perfect vehicle to help connect Brisk with its key audience of young adults, particularly males age 16-26. “It’s the biggest movie franchise out there, and will really help us promote Brisk among our target,” she said.
Brisk has long associated itself with Hollywood, with TV spots over the years featuring the likenesses of everyone from Sylvester Stallone’s character Rocky Balboa to Bruce Lee and Ralph “The Karate Kid” Macchio. Last year, the brand partnered with Warner Bros. Pictures on a marketing program built around the superhero movie Green Lantern.
The latest campaign launched earlier this month in the U.S. and debuts in Canada today. It features a 30-second TV, cinema and online spot starring animated, or “Brisk-ified,” versions of the Star Wars characters Darth Maul and Yoda.
Created by San Francisco-based Mekanism, the spot opens with an animated Yoda exclaiming “Darth Maul, not yourself you look,” to which Darth Maul responds that he had a “super late night” being evil before attempting to engage the Jedi Master in battle.
The partnership is also being supported by in-store point-of-sale materials, including limited edition 591ml and 1L bottles featuring Darth Maul.
Brisk is also introducing a free mobile app called Brisksaber on Monday, available at Brisksaber.ca or via Facebook.com/BriskCanada, that allows users to engage in lightsaber battles representing either good or evil forces. Gaming, said Seminario, represents a “big part” of who Brisk fans are. The Facebook page also contains details on how fans can win a weekend at the annual Star Wars convention in Florida.
Seminario called Brisk a “growing brand” that has doubled its market share in the iced tea category over the past three years. Brisk currently ranks second in the category behind Nestlé Canada’s Nestea brand and ahead of AriZona (the three brands currently account for about 85% of the Canadian iced tea market said Seminario) but the business objective is to have it lead the category by 2013.
