Lime-A-Rita To Market Only To Women: Brand To Debut New Flavors, Campaign, Packaging

Lime-A-Rita, celebrating its fifth year in business, has announced that it will be marketing exclusively to women. The move will make the product the first brand within the Anheuser-Busch portfolio to do so.

Lime-A-Rita will also be releasing five new flavors for the malt alcoholic beverage line and a major packaging redesign under a new campaign this year, Anheuser-Busch announced Monday. To help drive a “female-centric” message, the brand is being led by a female-led marketing team and agency, like FCB Chicago.

“By using the existing strength we have with female drinkers, we are poised to exclusively speak to women and bring more margarita moments to their lives,” senior director for Lime-A-Rita, Selena Kalvaria, said in a statement, referring to the brand’s new slogan.

Read: Anheuser-Busch Launches Global Smart Drinking Goals Initiative

The hook? Well, it could have started with the “feminine” preoccupation with promotional margarita nights. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that about 65 percent of the consumers who drink Lime-A-Ritas were female, according to AdWeek.

“We did our homework to understand the special connection female drinkers have with margaritas, and uncovered insights on the role that Lime-A-Rita plays in bringing women together,” Kalvaria said.

The campaign will include television and digital ads featuring instances in which women gather to drink and talk. A total of four ad spots will roll out under the new “Make it a Margarita Moment” campaign.

Finally, if Lime-A-Ritas fans were partial to existing flavors like Mang-O-Rita and Straw-Ber-Rita, the brand will be releasing new flavors like Peach-A-Rita and Grape-A-Rita (the pair will only be on offer through August as a seasonal release). Flavors like Orange-A-Rita will debut in select markets. Lower-alcohol sub-brands like Splash by Lime-A-Rita will include new tropical flavors like Coco-Nut-Rita Splash and Apple-Rita Splash. The new Splash flavors were expected to hit stores in special variety packs beginning next month. Consumers can expect the new packages to feature pop-art designs inspired by Manhattan’s Whitney Museum of American Art.

Anheuser-Busch has been known to grab headlines when it’s come to its ad campaigns and packaging. For the 2017 Super Bowl, the company ran its “Born the Hard Way” television commercial, the theme of which was immigration. It debuted on the heels of President Donald Trump’s executive order travel ban in January. The company also changed the label on its famous Budweiser cans ahead of summer 2016 with “America” replacing the traditional Budweiser logo.