CBD drink Little Rick bucks wellness trend to push real product benefits, in brand relaunch by NOW

Little Rick, the London-based direct-to-consumer CBD drinks brand, has unveiled a new brand identity and relaunch campaign. The work was developed in partnership with creative agency NOW.

Little Rick’s founders came to NOW to help redefine and reinvent its brand, and to create a more premium, adult identity more befitting of its highly-rated product range, which contains more CBD than any of its competitors and is made with a natural full-spectrum CBD oil rather than a lab-made CBD powder which many other brands use. 

With the UK CBD product market expected to reach a value of £1 billion by 2025, NOW and Little Rick needed to develop a new positioning and identity which would give the brand real standout in an already-saturated space.

Recognising that most CBD drinks brands have positioned themselves as health or wellness products, shying away from promoting their true product benefits, NOW and Little Rick chose to buck the trend and instead focus on the drink’s relaxing and stress-relieving properties.

Following a period of discovery and consumer research, NOW developed a new brand identity and campaign which dare to tell the truth about CBD: it takes the edge off so we can be ourselves. 

NOW has created a new brand identity that feels far more premium and adult than its predecessor, with design influences including the work of artist Keith Haring and the imagery of surf culture.

Marc Donaldson, Head of Design at NOW, said: “The process of creating full-spectrum CBD takes time and care, and we saw this human-based craft element as something we could also use to inform the look-and-feel. 

Reflecting the way in which direct-to-consumer brands live online, the new can design was created with Instagram in mind, with all additional information moved to the back so that any images of the drink would be as impactful as possible on-grid.

NOW created a new badge to hold all key details about the product in one, neat device. Using the ‘L’ and ‘R’ from Little Rick’s name, they designed a new mark to represent the care and time it takes to create full spectrum CBD. A dot in the ‘R’ and lines placed around it represent the product’s benefits.

The brand asset will be used on social channels and across various touchpoints such as boxes, stickers and T-shirts.

Each of Little Rick’s five flavours are now represented by a different bright, solid colour, to help the products stand out and to give more of a premium feel. 

As well as developing the new brand identity and packaging design, NOW has also developed an out-of-home and social media campaign to support the brand relaunch. 

A series of out-of-home executions feature bold, capitalised statements in Little Rick’s brand colours, contrasting with a black background, including “DRINK A RICK AND ROLL WITH IT”, “CALM DOWN”, “CHILL OUT” and “ENJOY CHILLED”. The dryly humorous accompanying body copy reveals how Little Rick can help you relax and be yourself. One ad, running in multiple sites in London’s Shoreditch, features the line “SHOREDITCH IS FULL OF LITTLE RICKS”, with an image of a can of Little Rick strategically placed for comic effect. 

Little Rick is available direct via its website and from retailers across the country.

Norman Kremer, Managing Director, Little Rick, said:“It’s been a pleasure to work so closely with NOW. They’ve become an extension of our team and we love the way they’ve pushed us to step away from category norms and do something bold and different. 

Ben da Costa, Chief Creative Officer, NOW, added: “When I first tried Little Rick, I absolutely loved the product, and immediately saw its potential.”

Source: NOW

  CBD Drink, Little Rick, Marc Donaldson, NOIW, Norman Kremer