Halo creates new campaign for Mallets cider brand

Mallets is a newest challenger brand in mainstream cider, a category dominated by Strongbow. The cider launched in the summer of last year and has since been focussed on brand building and off-trade listings.

The brand has been confirmed as the official cider of Glastonbury Festival in a four year deal, as well as significant listings in Tesco.

The campaign, created by Halo, which was appointed to develop Mallets' brand proposition following a four-way creative pitch process, leans on legend, drawing on Marvel, Avalon and Monty Python to create a memorable ad.

"The cider category is surprisingly homogenised," said Nick Ellis, creative partner at Halo. "You’re either talking about festivals and sundowners or you’re pushing craft and heritage. It’s all so safe and uninspiring with Shepton, the god of cider, we’ve created a disruptive hero to add something more playful to the marketing mix. He’s faintly ridiculous, but it’s all done with tongues firmly in cheek."

The regionally-targeted OOH campaign has seen an increase in sales volume by 95% in its first two weeks of launching with audience polls revealing impressive tracker results of 84% for brand recognition and recall.

Emmy Webster, senior marketing manager at Mallets said: "‘We believe we’ve got a great product, superior in both taste and quality. But in a category where all brands seem afraid to stand-out, Halo’s approach has been (paraphrasing John Hegarty) ‘to zig when others zag’. The campaign is a shot of knowing humour, building on familiar fantasy themes in a surprising way. Halo have been a great choice. A challenger agency with a challenger cider brand. It’s the right mix."