Ocean Spray reveals first major brand overhaul in 20-plus years

Dive Brief:

• Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. has refreshed its brand identity for the first time in more than two decades as it looks to highlight a “wildly uncommon” approach to culture, creative and connecting with consumers, per a press release. 
• The brand worked with creative studio Stone Strategy & Design to update its system of designs and visuals, spanning logo, illustrations, tone of voice, typography and photography, with a focus on the “grit and maverick nature” of the 95-year-old co-op.
• As part of the refresh, Ocean Spray has changed its approach to advertising, partnerships, licensing and product innovation, including a recent collaboration with Absolut on a ready-to-drink cocktail.

Dive Insight:

Ocean Spray is the latest CPG brand to ride a refresh wave that first crested during the pandemic period as marketers of legacy brands looked to reconnect with comfort-seeking consumers. For the brand update, Ocean Spray worked to stay true to its legacy and brand equity while engaging with a new generation, according to Eliza Sadler, head of brand elevation at Ocean Spray. The approach is similar to how other brands have addressed updates.

“Taking on the task to redefine the brand identity of a nearly 95-year-old company is something we didn’t take lightly. Guided by the desire to show up in wildly uncommon ways and be unapologetically offbeat, allowed us to lean into what makes the co-op so unique,” Sadler said in the press release.

The co-op and partner Stone Strategy & Design focused on a vision of the brand as “wildly uncommon,” giving a modern spin to each brand touchpoint. Instead of stock photography, the brand recreated the fruit-filled wave of the brand’s logo by manipulating water and fruit with a “one-of-a-kind mechanism” that helped produce a more “perfectly imperfect” image. In kind, the brand opted for printer-press-inspired typography and candid-style imagery of farmers.

Starting this month, Ocean Spray will roll out the refresh across most of its signature products. The brand’s new approach to marketing builds on recent successes like the launch of Chocolate Dipped Cranberry Bites, its first zero-sugar beverage and a limited-edition Cran x Dragon Fruit blend, per the release. The brand won a Cannes award for its 2022 “Power Your Holidays” ad. In other innovations, Ocean Spray teamed with Pernod Ricard vodka brand Absolut on a line canned vodka-cranberry cocktails to cash in on the ready-to-drink cocktail trend.

While this is Ocean Spray’s first major update to its visual identity in more than two decades, the brand has had to grapple with the changing marketing landscape in recent years. In October 2020, the marketer teamed with Nathan Apodaca to recreate a viral video that featured the TikTok creator skateboarding while lip-syncing to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” and sipping from a bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry. Later that month, Ocean Spray built on the momentum by releasing its first national campaign targeting Hispanic consumers.