Diageo Targets Shot Occasion With Captain Morgan LocoNut

Captain Morgan is being extended with a new shot-friendly, coconut-flavored offering called LocoNut. The newcomer is billed as a summer-inspired chilled shot option that blends Caribbean rum and spices with natural flavors including real coconut liqueur. LocoNut, which is 40-proof and retails at about $15 a 750-ml., is packaged in a round-shaped bottle reminiscent of a coconut. The packaging also boasts a “scratch-and-sniff” aspect: when scratched, it gives off a sweet coconut aroma.

Diageo says the launch of LocoNut stemmed from positive response to another shot-focused Captain Morgan extension, Cannon Blast, which is blend of rum, Caribbean citrus and chipotle and jalepeño pepper and has a cannonball-shaped bottle that glows in black light. Last fall, the company also featured a limited Jack-O’Blast pumpkin spiced offering with similar packaging.

Overall, the Captain Morgan brand grew 2.8% to 5.8 million cases in the U.S. last year, according to Impact Databank, despite increasing competition in the spiced rum segment. Innovations like LocoNut and Cannon Blast are intended to keep the brand front-and-center in the on-premise, where consumers have been engaging with a vast array of new shot options in recent years, most notably from the flavored whiskey segment. In Diageo’s fiscal first half, through December, the company noted that the brand “made strong share gains in a weak rum category with continued focus in the on-trade and activations to recruit multi-cultural consumers.”—Daniel Marsteller

Tagged : Captain Morgan, Diageo

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