Top 5 innovative food and beverage marketing ideas you need to know about right now

Ad Age is expanding its "Creativity Top 5" series to include new roundups of our favorite special-interest campaigns and ideas from brands. The latest installment looks at the most innovative ideas in the food and beverage industry over the past month. It follows our rankings of the best TikTok videos posted by brands, the best celebrity brand collaborations and the best brand NFT ideas. Visit our site each Thursday for a new list of campaigns from the past month. Check back next month for another installment of top food and beverage ideas.Check out the latest Creativity Top 5 here. This month in food and beverage: A special gingerbread kit and vodka for curly fry fans, and a sauce you can't refuse.See Ad Age’s 2021 Year in Review here. No. 5: Minty fresh beer Two Chicago holiday institutions—a winter brew and Frango chocolates—come together in a new offering from Hop Butcher for the World, a Chicago microbrewery. The beer, called Minted, is an Imperial Holiday Stout brewed with mint oil extracted from Frango chocolates from Garrett Brands, the Chicago company with popcorn shops throughout the city. The beer boasts a walloping 10.5% alcohol by volume. No word on its efficacy as a breath freshener. No. 4: The Art of the smudge “Cheetle,” the messy residue of the Cheetos snack that owner PepsiCo has embraced as a point of pride, has gone from your pants to the canvas. Noted street artist Franco Campanella, who works as Lefty Out There, created a series of eight works using the orange dust that were exhibited as part of the Art Basel show in Miami this month. No. 3: Dive In Miller High Life is giving its industrious fans the materials to erect the scene of their legendary nights with a Dive Bar gingerbread kit. The tavern comes complete with a pool table with miniature pretzel-stick cues, gumdrop lights, and candy-cane bar stools. The walls are made of gingerbread infused with Miller High Life, and the floor is infused with Vermont maple syrup packets to ensure a sticky floor, a signature of the best dives. Agency ICF Next is behind the fun holiday spin-off, which sold out quickly. No. 2: 80-proof fries What do french fries and vodka have in common? They’re both made of potatoes, for one—and they’re both included in a novelty mashup from fast-food brand Arby’s. Arby’s teamed with creative agency Fallon and Tattersall Distilling to create two varieties of fry-flavored vodka. The 80-proof liquid fries come in two varieties: Crinkle-cut and Curly. Fans raced online to be the first to try them. They’ve since sold out. No. 1: Leave the gun, take the olive oil A new line of imported Italian foods—including olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sauces, and a vodka—are taking their name, story and inspiration from the iconic film franchise, "The Godfather." Corleone Fine Italian represents a collaboration between Los Angeles-based MJ Licensing and ViacomCBS Consumer Products, which oversees licensing and merchandising for Paramount Pictures, which released the groundbreaking film in 1972 and its sequels in 1974 and 1990. Packaging on sauces features an image of Marlon Brando as the titular mob boss Don Corelone. The olive oil, Genco, takes its name and package design directly from the film. “We feel like people will want to try the product because they love the film, and because they like the products, they will trust the brand,” Jeffrey Dash, managing partner of MJ Licensing, said in an interview.

Top 5 innovative food and beverage marketing ideas you need to know about right now

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