A new name, not a beer brand with bubbles.

Vizzy is a hard seltzer made by Molson Coors Beverage Company, the brewer formed in February 2005 by the merger of Canada’s Molson and America’s Coors, according to English Wikipedia. The company dropped “Brewing” from its name in a change announced in October 2019, as it looked beyond beer. English Wikipedia gives its principal offices as Golden, Colorado, and Montréal, with administrative offices in Chicago and Prague.

Vizzy was Molson Coors’ first big move in hard seltzer. On the company’s earnings call in February 2020, chief executive Gavin Hattersley called it “our biggest bet yet on the hard seltzer segment,” BeverageDaily reported on 13 February 2020. The same report noted a deliberate choice: rather than stretch an existing beer name such as Coors Light or Miller Lite, Molson Coors gave its seltzer a brand of its own, aimed at drinkers aged 25 to 39. Hattersley also told analysts, “We believe that the seltzer category is here to stay.” Molson Coors already sold a seltzer, Henry’s Hard Sparkling Water, and the report said Vizzy would be backed by national television, digital, social and outdoor advertising and by sampling.

The drink reached shelves in spring 2020. On 8 April 2020 the company’s own news blog said Vizzy was “now on shelves nationwide” in the United States, with a national campaign beginning that week, opening with two videos for legal-age drinkers on social media. It launched in four flavours: Pineapple Mango, Black Cherry Lime, Blueberry Pomegranate and Strawberry Kiwi, sold in variety 12-packs of 12-ounce cans and in six-packs of Pineapple Mango.

What set Vizzy apart in its launch messaging was an ingredient. Molson Coors built the brand around the acerola cherry, the company and BeverageDaily reported. Elizabeth Hitch, the company’s director of hard seltzers, said at launch that “all of the big hard seltzers are following the same playbook.”

Bright orange on the shelf, fruit mosaics on the can.

The packaging was designed to be seen from a distance. Molson Coors described Vizzy’s bright orange packaging as “designed to stand out on retail shelves,” and said each can carried colorful mosaics highlighting its fruit flavour, in its launch post of April 2020. Hitch said: “The packaging showcases Vizzy as a brand that stands out in the category.”

The flavour range grew in pairs. AlCircle reported on 25 February 2021 that a second variety pack was due on shelves on 1 March 2021 with four “dual-flavor mash-ups”: Papaya Passionfruit, Blackberry Lemon, Watermelon Strawberry and Raspberry Tangerine, in 12-packs of slim cans. Hitch, by then marketing director for Vizzy, said that “Vizzy fans have been asking for new flavors and we wanted to deliver with bright, bold dual-flavor mash-ups.” The same report said Vizzy would go on sale in Canada in early March 2021.

Variations kept coming. By July 2021 the line included a Vizzy Lemonade and a Vizzy Watermelon, BeverageDaily reported, and on 1 March 2022 FoodBev Media reported a Vizzy Mimosa variety pack, with Strawberry Orange, Pineapple Orange, Peach Orange and Pomegranate Orange, available across the United States.

The name itself was tested in court. Food Dive reported on 4 June 2021 that Future Proof Brands, maker of a seltzer called Brizzy, had sued Molson Coors over the Vizzy name in 2020, and that the parties reached an amicable settlement approved on 2 June 2021, under which Brizzy would no longer be made or marketed.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all ready-to-drink names: Vizzy, Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi Breezer, Cutwater, Kirin Hyoketsu, Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Twisted Tea. Several of them come from companies better known for beer or wine. The Boston Beer Company, maker of Samuel Adams, first sold its hard iced tea in 2000 as BoDean’s Twisted Tea and renamed it Twisted Tea in 2001, the company says; Molson Coors launched Vizzy nationally in the United States in April 2020. Kirin Brewery launched Hyoketsu in Japan in 2001, according to a Kirin release of April 2016. Mike’s Hard Lemonade comes from the family-owned Mark Anthony group founded by Anthony von Mandl, which says it began in 1972 as a one-person wine importer.

Others sit inside spirits houses or were bought by one. Smirnoff Ice belongs to Diageo, and English Wikipedia notes that in the United States it is a malt beverage, while in many other markets it is made with Smirnoff vodka. Bacardi Breezer, which English Wikipedia describes as a premix of Bacardi rum, was launched in Britain in 1993, the same article says, citing the BBC. Cutwater was founded in San Diego in 2016 by former Ballast Point executives, FoodBev reported, and in February 2019 The Whiskey Wash reported its purchase by Anheuser-Busch.

A ready-to-drink brand’s identity is carried largely by a can, a name and a flavour list, and the same name can cover different recipes in different countries. Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — who launched it, who owns it now and how its packs have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

The seltzer Molson Coors kept.

The standalone name outlasted the company’s beer-branded seltzer. In July 2021 Molson Coors stopped making Coors Seltzer, its beer-branded seltzer, in the United States and said it would concentrate on Vizzy and Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, BeverageDaily reported on 12 July 2021. The company said in its note to wholesalers that “Vizzy has seen tremendous success with its recent innovation.” The report drew the contrast plainly: Vizzy, a standalone brand, had grown while the beer-branded Coors Seltzer struggled, and Molson Coors asked retailers to display Vizzy’s two variety packs, its Lemonade and its Watermelon side by side.

The brand’s current website, vizzyhardseltzer.com, is run by Molson Coors Beverage Company from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, according to its own footer, and groups the range into two packs, Vibrantly Tropical and Refreshingly Berry, under the line “Find your vibe.” In the United States the drink is labelled as a flavoured beer. The site also runs a fan club it calls the “Vizzy Gang VIP.”

The name needs care online. The domain vizzy.com belongs to an unrelated careers platform, so searches for the seltzer are best made with the full name, Vizzy Hard Seltzer.

For a design guide, Vizzy shows how a late entrant can claim space in a crowded category with one loud colour, a story built around a single ingredient and cans that use pattern rather than a photograph to show flavour. Compare Truly Hard Seltzer, Boston Beer’s seltzer, and White Claw, the hard seltzer from Mark Anthony Brands. For this guide we use shelf orange, mango yellow and berry magenta with a rounded sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Vizzy’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.