Spirit enhancing tonics

The role of this project had two commercial objectives.

1. Shift the business away from its usual two-year development cycles and embed a lean and fast product innovation culture at the heart of the company.

2. Give Suntory a product that it could credibly challenge within the exploding premium tonics category in the UK.

To be able to start a project with a blank sheet of paper is a rare opportunity. The main focus was to create a set of liquids that delivered a better drinking experience than Fever Tree and to build a brand that operated by a different set of rules that existed in the category.

To create a point of difference to the existing premium mixers category, we also positioned the product as something different, A Spirit Enhancer. This was born from a truth of how the products were developed. To enhance, not mask the flavour of the spirits you were drinking it with.

In developing the liquids, we formed a Beta Collective of 10 of the top bartenders in world, whose expertise informed and shaped the products that we launched with. Working with this Beta Collective also meant we had immediate distribution when we launched.

For the visual identity of the brand; from the logo and bottle design to the product photography, we flipped the conventional category cues of blacks, golds and stuffy imagery to provide a fresh, modern and artistic approach.