Brand partnerships are a renewed focus for Ocean Spray as the farmer-owned cooperative buddies up for growth it couldn’t necessarily reach on its own.

The brand announced two such collaborations this month: a chocolate-covered dried fruit line in partnership with Hershey’s, and a co-branded canned vodka cranberry cocktail coming next year from Absolut vodka and its parent, Pernod Ricard.

Ocean Spray, known for its cranberry juice drinks, is seizing on hot categories such as snacking and ready-to-drink cocktails—and overarching consumer trends such as convenience and wellness—with the deals, Monisha Dabek, chief commercial officer at USA at Ocean Spray, said in an interview. While such brand partnerships are not new, they have risen in popularity of late as marketers seek to attract consumer excitement —and also generate earned media at little cost.

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“We don't want to partner just to partner and co-brand something, we want to make sure it’s a strategic part of the innovation space, and will actually bring us either a new occasion, a new consumer, [or] a new daypart,” Dabek said. 

The new Ocean Spray-Hershey’s co-branded products—milk chocolate dipped cranberry bites and dark chocolate dipped cherry-infused cranberry bites—offer sweeter, more indulgent alternatives to dried fruits such as Craisins. And they give Ocean Spray a way to expand its “enrobed” line, which already includes yogurt-covered Craisins, with a boost from an additional brand’s name recognition.

“What we found in talking to our consumers, is they’re buying the dried fruit covered with chocolate because they want something slightly healthier, but still that permissible indulgence,” Dabek said. “We really thought Hershey’s was the right brand to bring new consumers in the aisle with us to build innovation in partnership that was really exciting and different for the category.”

Trust between the two brands helped them bring the new products to market in less than a year, Dabek said. Ocean Spray declined to discuss the structure of its deal with Hershey’s. Ocean Spray is now working with other brands within the Hershey portfolio on additional new products, Dabek said.

“I think they were excited to participate with their brand in a different part of the store. They don’t exist within the dried fruit section today,” Dabek said of the Hershey’s brand. “For Hershey, it was an opportunity for ‘incrementality” and showing up with a different set of consumers … It’s still a chocolate-forward occasion, but it’s got this twist of dried fruit inclusion.”

Another attraction for Ocean Spray and Hershey’s was the opportunity to show up in new areas within club stores such as Costco, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale when they do custom rotations within dried fruit, Dabek said. Hershey Co. also owns Brookside, which sells dark chocolate fruit-flavored candies, including in some club stores snack aisles.

The brands intend to promote the products, which are in grocery stores now, with a campaign this summer that will include targeted advertisements, sampling programs and collaboration on social media.

‘Credibility’ in RTDs

Cranberry juice and vodka already go together—so putting them in a single package made sense for both Ocean Spray and Absolut, the companies said.

“It takes take existing consumer behavior and delivers it in a very convenient, ready-to-drink format,” said Dabek. “I think because our brand is so synonymous with consumers relative to cranberry, that when we find the right partnership—vodka cranberry comes to mind—then having a brand like Absolut makes all the sense in the world to go after.”

Absolut and Ocean Spray’s vodka-cranberry line represents Absolut’s first entry into “sessionable” RTD cocktails—a rapidly-growing category led by High Noon. The forthcoming product contains 4.5% alcohol by volume, or about the same as a light beer. This has opened up liquor products to occasions beer once dominated.

Natalie Accari, VP of RTD and convenience for Pernod Ricard, said Ocean Spray is the top brand of cranberry juice consumers mix with Absolut. The brand’s inclusion in the RTD brings “credibility” as compared to competitors such as High Noon and Nutrl, which don’t specify a brand of liquor or juice they use.

“There are some non-branded vodkas—you don’t know what is inside a lot of these RTDs. So we’re proud to bring our consumers a quality proposition with Absolut and Ocean Spray,” she said.

The forthcoming drink is one of many non-alcoholic drink brands now getting boozy interpretations amid the RTD craze, including Sunny D Vodka Seltzer, Hard Mtn Dew and Simply Spiked lemonade.

Ocean Spray and Absolut began working together last year on co-merchandising in retail stores, “and the collaboration grew from there,” Accari said. “We said to each other, ‘You know I think that there must be a way to make this in a ready-to-drink format,’ and we started that journey of liquid development and then packaging." 

The cranberry and vodka product will be sold in variety packs including cranberry, cran-pineapple, cran-grape and cran-raspberry. Officials made the announcement in early May—several months before it hits shelves in January 2024—so that Pernod Ricard could kick off talks with retailers. Consumer marketing will follow.

The item will complement Absolut’s more fruit-forward cocktails including its 10% ABV RTD Berry Vodkarita, Accari said.

“With consumers, there is a lot of polarization happening in the category,” Accari said. “We’re seeing a lot of lower ABV, more sessionable, easier-drinking RTDs but we do know that consumers are also looking for more full-flavored cocktails on the other end of the spectrum.”