angry orchard

Bad Apples Make Better Content.

Reclaiming the brand’s rebellious streak with a social strategy built to misbehave.

A Little Less Orchard. A Lot More Angry.

Angry Orchard didn’t need a personality. It needed permission to use the one it already had. The country’s largest hard cider brand was losing ground to craft competitors, while the rebellious attitude that made it famous had become a little too well-behaved.

We refreshed the voice, rebuilt the social strategy around what people actually wanted to engage with, and partnered with a client who was willing to get a little weird.

Then we unleashed the internet chaos. Unhinged ideas. Questionable creative. No adult supervision. The work reacted to culture while bringing back the irreverence that built the brand. Turns out, a little chaos can be very productive.

THE RESULTS

• Organic impressions +32%
• Engagements +27%
• Audience +11%

How do ya like them apples?

We accidentally started a cult.

To launch Crisp Imperial, Angry Orchard’s bolder 8% ABV cider, we turned one product benefit into an entire belief system. The 8% was a completely normal collective of enlightened apple enthusiasts recruited through subliminal videos, meditation cleanses, and an inverted isosceles initiative that was absolutely not a pyramid scheme.

It was definitely not a cult. The disclaimers said so.

We turned a fan-made drink into a sold-out merch drop.

When we noticed fans mixing Angry Orchard with Fireball, we made it official. The collab became a limited-edition collection of clothing and accessories with pockets perfectly sized for bad decisions. One meme and 44.9K impressions later, the entire collection sold out overnight.

Questionable taste = undeniable demand.

No tricks. Just an alarming amount of cider.

Inspired by the heroes who hand out king-size candy bars, we supersized Angry Orchard into a six-liter bottle more than 16 times the size of the original. It was excessive, impractical, and exactly the kind of thing no responsible adult asked for.

Subtle? No. Easy to pour? Also no.

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We gave PSL something to be angry about.

When the client asked, “How can we slap pumpkin spice in the face?” we were all over it. We enlisted autumn-loving creators to do what they do best: overcommit to fall. Across 36 pieces of content, the campaign delivered 6.3M+ impressions, 638K+ engagements, and a 13-point lift in favorability.

No infinity scarves were harmed.