A clear winner of the rise of hard seltzer so far has been Mark Anthony Brands International, with its White Claw brand of fruity alcoholic seltzer water.  Despite a relatively small marketing budget of $11M in 2019, the brand has dominated the category.  Consumers identify the brand with the broader seltzer sub-segment.  It has benefitted from viral social media and word-of-mouth trends that accompanied the rise of seltzer. 

The first-mover advantage will not last forever, with White Claw market share dropping to 45% from 58% in 2019.  It’s believed that big-beer brands with strong innovation pipelines and marketing firepower should be able to take share from White Claw and Truly.  Bud Light and Corona managed to break into the top five brands, with market shares estimated at 9.6% and 4.1%, respectively, despite being released in 2020.

The health-oriented VIZZY brand from TAP has room to grow, the launch of Coors Seltzer later this year could bring newfound success.

U.S. market growth over the next three years will be driven primarily by 2 factors:

  1. Newly converted seltzer drinkers coming from beer/wine/spirits
  2. A new generation of legal drinking age Americans

We’ll explore these audiences in a subsequent article.

Aiden Gentson