How do you refresh an icon?

Introduced by The Coca-Cola Company in 1961, Sprite is the world's leading lemon-lime flavored soft drink. Sprite is sold in more than 190 countries and ranks as the No. 3 soft drink worldwide. Despite these impressive numbers, Sprite was losing market share around the world.

Challenge
Sprite was suffering from shrinking loyalty – from both consumers and, somewhat surprisingly, from its bottling partners. There was an overall lack of excitement about where the brand was heading, with teenagers confused about the role of refreshment in the context of their everyday activities. In 2006, Sprite planned to launch a series of packaging and product innovations designed to rejuvenate the brand and get consumers to reconsider Sprite. The first step was to launch a new product formula and complete brand overhaul. We were asked to lead this global effort, and return Sprite to its rightful place in the hearts and minds of consumers.

What we did
Based on the core proposition, that Sprite is " Refreshingly Cut Through", we explored ideas that connected to the (intrinsic) liquid properties, such as refreshment, thirst quenching, the role of citrus and the nature of sparkling beverages. Next, we explored the outward facing (extrinsic) properties of the Sprite brand – confident, transparent and clean. The resulting redesign of the brand is built around the lemon lime 'S', aka the now famous lymon. This gave Sprite an icon of refreshment, both inside and outside the package.

Outcome
The global Sprite refresh launched in 2006, through a series launch campaigns created in partnership with Crispin Porter + Bogusky. The redesign was a success, reconnecting it with the Influencer Teen target audience and increasing sales in North America by 18%.