Ready-to-drink cocktail Dirty Shirley has partnered with Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (SGWS), the company announced today, as it expands the reach of the nostalgic brand into new territories.
Texas-based Dirty Shirley is an adult version of the sweet, grenadine and lemon-lime soda concoction that was originally created in 1932 for child matinee idol Shirley Temple. By adding vodka and organic cherry juice to the mix, founder Adam Kost recreated a trending bar cocktail for the can last year, capturing the post-pandemic demand for indulgent, nostalgic flavors.
Last November Dirty Shirley launched two new flavors and jumped from Washington, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, Illinois, Arkansas, and Colorado into several new states using a mix of distributors from across the Anheuser Busch and Molson Coors networks. Now, the brand will be moving into 12 new markets with SGWS.
Last year’s brand expansion was backed by partnerships with Walmart, Total Wine, Specs, Safeway, and Hucks. Initial sales were focused on the liquor channel but are now targeting grocery. To support new markets, the company previously hired sales associates in key cities and pushed on social media, particularly TikTok and Instagram, where the brand has benefitted from organic engagement and worked with influencers.
“We are still very chain focused and prefer to invest in our retail partners versus traditional media channels,” said Kost in an email to BevNet. “Retail is the best media channel out there.”
Kost is following the lead of The Finnish Long Drink or Lone River Ranch Water, RTDs that have found success becoming the call brand through building their respective stories around very specific cocktails that haven’t yet hit the mainstream.
“The RTD category is interesting, and for the most part where people have found success is in recreating or reimagining something where there’s already consumer behavior,” Kost said last Fall.
Dirty Shirley falls under Goodwell Brands, an RTD venture that Kost kicked off with cocktail seltzer Country Luau last year after 20 years in the beverage industry at AB Inbev’s ZX-Ventures, Heineken USA and Waterloo Sparkling Water.
The brand isn’t the only flavor-forward RTD with nostalgia-driven branding to strike a recent deal with SGWS: Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s Gin & Juice also began rolling out through the distributor this month.