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Wine Fast Track Brands
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Wine & Spirit RTDS- GROWTH BRANDS Wine Fast Track Brands
⊳ High Noon’ s rapid growth can be attributed to the brand doubling down on creativity, cultural moments and strategic partnerships.
2025 GROWTH BRANDS: RTD BRANDS MAKING A SPLASH
by KRYSTINA SKIBO
RISING STAR
Beer, wine and spirits sales are still struggling, and continue to experience volume declines ever since the onslaught of Covid. However, the rapid rise in popularity of the ready-to-drink( RTD) category is a key factor in helping the industry remain afloat.
According to the Beverage Information Group’ s Industry Overview for 2024, RTDs have a projected growth of 20 % last year, representing a slight slowdown from 2023, but still marking the most significant growth in total distilled spirits.
The category reached 63.0 million 9−liter cases, achieving a 20.5 category share, up 3.0 share points vs 2023, according to the overview, just slightly below total whiskey. This growth highlights the category’ s appeal, offering convenience and variety without requiring multiple spirits, mixers or cocktail-making knowledge.
With the market now saturated with companies releasing their own versions of ready-to-drink cocktails, our 2025 RTD Growth Brands winners have managed to stand out, receiving the popular vote amongst consumers.
We spoke with each of our winners to see how they’ re able to achieve such growth in an uncertain economy.
GETTING UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
With RTDs taking up entire aisles at liquor stores, it’ s no longer enough to launch a canned cocktail and wait and see what happens. You need a top-notch marketing plan, and for many of our winners that involves meeting the customers themselves.
Canned cocktail brand and Rising Star winner Carbliss is finding major success in the traditional“ liquid to lips” strategy. It’ s even helping Carbliss launch in new markets.
“ In 2024 we continued our boots on the ground, liquid to lips strategy, and we launched in two new states: Ohio and Kansas,” says Carbliss public relations and communications coordinator Casey Suttner.“ In addition, we completed distribution in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Nebraska.”
Keeping a pulse on consumer trends and understanding what they’ re looking for in a canned cocktail is another successful marketing strategy for Carbliss.
“ Today’ s consumer wants premium, convenient items that can also fit into their wellness goals,” Suttner adds.“ Also, quality and range of flavor is important to our consumers, and Carbliss continues to innovate. We launched five new flavors in 2025: Mango, Watermelon, Raspberry, Blood Orange and Grapefruit.”
Rising Star winner High Noon also made quite a splash in 2024 for its creative marketing.
“ In 2024, we doubled down on creativity, cultural moments and strategic partnerships to keep High Noon top of mind all year long,” says Brandon Lieb, vice president of Spirit of Gallo.“ We also tapped into experiential activations to drive cultural relevance and deepen consumer engagement.”
Last spring, High Noon made a historic splash with the High Noon Boston Vodka Iced Tea Party, taking over an 18th-century-style ship in Boston Harbor and presenting the city with 342 cases of High Noon Vodka Iced Tea— the exact amount of tea dumped in the harbor in 1773.
“ And through football tailgating ac-
RISING STAR
Canned cocktail brand and Rising Star winner Carbliss is finding major success in the acclaimed“ liquid to lips” marketing strategy. www. stateways. com Summer 2025 • StateWays 39