Sierra Mist is changing its look yet again.
The PepsiCo-owned brand, which has undergone multiple makeovers since launching in 2000, is changing its formula and design, with new packaging that recently began hitting stores. The lemon-lime soda will still be made with sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup -- a change implemented in 2010 -- but the brand is adding stevia, which will result in a 20% calorie reduction for an 8-ounce serving, a PepsiCo spokeswoman said.
The formula change marks the first time PepsiCo has put a stevia-sweetened soda in the U.S., and follows the recent launch in the states of Coca-Cola Life, which is sweetened with cane sugar and stevia.
Sierra Mist's packaging update includes font changes -- the 'M" in Mist now looks like two triangles colliding. Also, gone are images of sliced lemon and limes riding liquid waves. In their place, the brand is using something a little more psychedelic that meshes circular images of various shades of green and yellow and white.
"The new package utilizes strong color cues to communicate the lemon/lime flavor to bring a more modern approach to the packaging as compared to the traditional lemon/lime wedges," a PepsiCo spokeswoman said in an email. The changes will be accompanied by a new campaign called "Make Interesting Happen" that seeks to "spark the curiosity of the millennial consumer by delivering experiences from the outer edges of mainstream culture," she added. The effort will include experiential, as well as print, digital and radio ads and consumer promotions and retail merchandising.
The agency on the campaign is Van's General Store, New York, which was co-founded in 2012 by actor Liev Schreiber and describes itself as a "hybrid creative collective." Van's General Store has been working in collaboration with Sylvain Labs, a strategic planning consultancy that has been working on Sierra Mist's relaunch, Scott Carlson, a Van's General Store co-founder, said in an email.
In recent years the brand had been using DDB, Chicago, which took over Sierra Mist in 2011 from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners.