Jones Soda Co., known for its unconventional flavors and user-designed label artwork, is paying tribute to some of 2020’s most inspiring private citizens with a limited-edition, eight-bottle “Unsung Heroes” collection. The Seattle, Washington-based company’s campaign is the latest in a series of themed releases that are using the company’s unique label-based brand personality to invigorate sales.
The new Unsung Heroes collection features photographs of various people or groups who took extraordinary steps to help others during a difficult year. Examples include a small California restaurant that provided hundreds of meals to the 2020 Glass Fire evacuees and first responders, a firefighter at the Skyxe Saskatoon International Airport and a nonprofit organization that has delivered 55-gallon barrels of clean, potable drinking water to remote areas of the Navajo Nation since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The series is appearing on Jones Green Apple Soda bottles in both the U.S. and Canada with a total print run of 500,000, hitting shelves this month. All eight honorees are profiled at jonessoda.com/unsung-heroes.
In addition, consumers can use Jones’ custom label program to order personalized bottles spotlighting the unsung heroes in their own lives, complete with the Unsung Heroes logo and the uploaded photo of their choice. They also can nominate their personal unsung hero by submitting a photo to the Jones photo gallery for possible inclusion on a future Jones bottle.
The campaign joins a marketing reboot that began last summer with a “Messages of Hope” collection featuring images of positivity during the pandemic and continued with a “Vote 2020” series which included QR codes that turned Jones Cream Soda bottles into two-minute voter registration tools. Additional themed series are planned throughout 2021.
These renewed marketing investments, which also included a high-profile RV campaign last July featuring legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk, are part of a strategic growth plan that helped the company achieve a 17 percent year-over-year revenue increase and improved gross margins in the third quarter of 2020.
“The themed collections we introduced in 2020 created an emotional connection with consumers by leveraging one of our most valuable brand assets – constantly changing label images submitted by Jones fans – to address some of the most urgent issues of the day,” said Mark Murray, Jones Soda president and CEO. “These collections raised our brand profile, garnered thousands of new followers and millions of social media impressions and helped deliver a strong Q3 that continued into Q4. Our new Unsung Heroes campaign is the first of a series of initiatives we are implementing to sustain and accelerate that growth in 2021, building on the innovative flavors and labels ‘of the people and for the people’ that have distinguished the brand for 25 years.”
