Kahlúa Espresso Martini

Design: Pond Design
Project Type: Produced, Commercial Work
Client: The Absolut Company, Kahlua
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Packaging Contents: Ready-to-drink Coffee Cocktail
Packaging Substrate / Materials: Aluminum Can

Kahlúa is a coffee liqueur from Veracruz, Mexico. Since its introduction in 1936, Kahlúa has remained the top selling coffee liqueur in the world. Along with its blend of fine Mexican coffee, Kahlúa also contains a rich mix of vodka and rum. A huge brand in the 80’s, the brand is still today one of the most well-known and loved coffee liqueurs sold worldwide.

Kahlúa identified a strong opportunity for ready-to-drink coffee cocktails with coffee, cold brews and coffee cocktails trending. Kahlúa was experiencing a positive growth and wanted to maintain that momentum. The ambition was to launch a new, ready-to-drink coffee cocktail and thereby establish Kahlúa as the leader of the global coffee cocktail movement off-trade, in addition to the already established dominance on-trade.

Mission
Pond Design was commissioned to create a relevant and modern convenience offering that would attract younger consumers to the brand. The challenge was to carve out a new space for the Kahlúa brand on the ready-to-drink shelf and create a design that is both premium, contemporary and recognizably Kahlúa.

Insight
People want to have their favourite cocktail not only in bars but also at home, when outdoors or traveling. Espresso Martini is a popular and well-liked cocktail, but difficult to make on one’s own.

The idea
Kahlúa Espresso Martini ready-to-drink cocktail has a crafted appeal with a witty tone-of voice, with graphic icons on back of pack that describes taste, ingredients and nitro-technology. The design stretches away from the brand’s core look towards a more modern expression whilst keeping a strong brand affiliation. The retro-premium cocktail look is a wink to the classic bar scene. The execution is done in a modern, yet crafty, 50s-styled illustration and executed in a contemporary way. The result is both sophisticated and approachable, charming and tasty, and that visually connects the product to the world of cocktails. To ensure high shelf visibility in an already crowded ready-to-drink cocktail shelf, we kept the design simple, with a modernized look and a visually striking presence.