'Now is a good time' - cider's time

This new billboard campaign by Magner's builds on previous campaigns. We've been told that Magner's is best 'over ice' and so the idea continues with having the glass and the ice swimming around. I saw the billboard on my way home this evening and as a fan of the brand, and it's cousin Bulmer's, and on a warm evening, it was like the mothership calling me home. I have a rule that I don't drink on a school-night unless you're buying, but the ad appealed.

I failed aged 18 to develop a taste for beer, and it's been a drawback at times. I much prefer cider, but places like Italy and others are cider-deserts. I had to be different. A few years ago I went off the main draught cider Strongbow, and clearly the new brand Magner's sensed this and brought its brand to the Scottish market. The theatre production began. The bottle and the pint glass and it was up to me. Guinness of course has its very own theatre, 119.53 seconds to pour, but this was a different level. I get to choose how much ice I'm given (just a little bit, thanks) and I even get to pour the bottle. A little ice and 3/4 full is my own preference.

It's a mite pretentious all told, of course it is, but it for sure refreshed the UK cider market. In a way, it was a truly groundbreaking moment in cider in the UK, to the extent that these days, the choice on-trade and off is actually pretty phenomenal. Carlsberg have now entered the market with green cans entitled 'Somersby', with achingly clever tv spots playing on the Apple store experience. And the name will always grate with some, but Thatcher's is creeping into off-trade. The traditionals still fill the supermarket shelves, Olde English, Woodpecker, the ciders of my late-teens and there's still the odd bottle of K, a strong fellow, but tasty nonetheless. Dry Blackthorn is a no for me, but still clings onto a place in the market. Sadly Red Rock, one from the mid-80s, with Police Squad comedy ads with Leslie Nielsen, is no more, and had its own place in the market with smaller, stubby bottles. Swedish brands Kopperberg (the apple is fantastic) and Rekorderlig have gone all other-fruity and Magner's has dipped a toe there too. Overall then it's still a booming market, and Magner's takes much credit for this. With this campaign, the chances of keeping up share of market are high. More power to them for having changed the rules.