Dr Pepper, the oldest major soft drink in America, has been a one-of-a-kind brand since its inception in 1885. We’re still one-of-a-kind on all accounts: flavor profiles, brand values, and most importantly, fandom. Now, in 2023, we had big news to share.
The hottest drop of the year wasn’t a sneaker or an album or a smart device or even a baby…it was our newest flavor: Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream. Our goal was to introduce this new sweet and creamy flavor to the world and capture the attention of flavor lovers everywhere. But in a world obsessed with the newest new thing, in a category overflowing with new flavors, grabbing attention is far from easy, especially when our competitors also launched new products in 2023. Coke launched celebrity-backed Move, Mountain Dew launched purple-hued Pitch Black, and Pepsi launched the most hyped, and media supported, release of the year: Gen Z–targeted Starry.
We made Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream THE announcement of the year, subverted drop culture, and played specifically to each of our placements in our media plan.
In online video placements, we dropped the flavor in wild and unexpected ways to communicate the brand’s newest flavor. In one spot, we staged a gender reveal to announce: “We’re having a soda!!” In another, we created a Dr Pepper game show, “Just Try It!” where players could win a car—made entirely of Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream. We even went back to pioneering days, with settlers making a huge discovery of delicious Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream.
https://vimeo.com/807632676?share=copy
https://vimeo.com/807633149?share=copy
We dropped it like a sneaker with a “Flavor Drop Box” PR kit. These included exclusive Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream shoelaces, a bucket hat, and stickers. We sent these to influencers and flavor fanatics to get them hyped and help spread the word about our new flavor.
We even dropped it like an original song, in collaboration with Yung Gravy. A rapper, TikTok star, and all-around sweet and creamy guy, Yung Gravy was the perfect artist to help us grab the attention of soda fans. Together with his team, we created “Strawberries & Creamin’,” a song all about enjoying new Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream. We dropped “Strawberries & Creamin’” with a TikTok TopView takeover, making Yung Gravy and Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream the first thing everyone saw when they opened the app on May 3. On YouTube, we dropped the full track and an animated music video, featuring Yung Gravy dancing with an anthropomorphized Strawberries & Cream can—yes, you read that correctly. We even teamed up with NTWRK to drop exclusive Yung Gravy x Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream merch.
https://vimeo.com/824264635?share=copy
In other social placements, we created content that introduced the flavor to the masses and leaned into popular trends at the time, as well as product-forward creative that highlighted the flavor’s RTBs to encourage purchase in socially native ways.
In social, in person, in…just about everywhere, we were dropping nonstop. And our fans responded in a big way. Our sweet and creamy soda was an instant hit with flavor connoisseurs. Luckily for them, Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream is here to stay.
And that’s how you make an entrance.
Despite heavy competition in the CSD category, Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream was the #1 CSD innovation of 2023 and one of the fastest growing beverages for the year.
Not only did we best the competition on all key metrics, but we drove incrementality to the base business, demonstrating this big launch would be a mainstay standout on shelves.
The flavor sold over $280MM in 2023 and drove 66% incremental share growth to the trademark and represented 33% of the dollar sales growth of the trademark contributed by the 1.6x better velocities and +9% repeat purchases—outperforming our main innovation competitor in 2023, Starry. Additionally, in social placements we drove +11.3% and +5.4pts in brand awareness on TikTok and Meta, respectively, and +24.1% and +16.8% in ad recall of Dr Pepper Strawberries & Cream ads for those same platforms.
