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Inventing A Premium Drink
The X.B story is unusual. The idea of making and selling a new premium drinks brand based on the historically successful ‘Sex on the Beach’ cocktail was proposed by a private investor in December 2011. At that stage nothing at all existed. Within five months X.B – a mix of orange, cranberry, peach and grape blended with smooth triple distilled grain vodka – had been successfully produced and launched in May 2012 by WW at the Cannes Film Festival, to great acclaim with celebrity packed events in the leading Riviera nightclubs.

WW’s challenge was to create a desirable, global, luxury brand presentation, able to capture clubbers attention that would become a table staple within the prestigious members’ club market, sitting comfortably alongside counterparts such as Dom Perignon, Belvedere and Grey Goose. The brand had to look great as well as taste great. It had to work as a ‘table trophy’ with a design that could be instantly recognisable as a symbol of status. WW began the project with the brand proposition of ‘Pursuit of Pleasure’ which also had to be communicated. Whilst collaborating with key London and Paris mixologists, WW set to work on the brand identity and the eventual packaging.

Our research found that the original ‘Sex on the Beach’ cocktail had a persona that WW needed to challenge to attract a large audience.

Adopting 50′s glamour and Riviera style as inspiration the entire design language stemmed from the golden era of the Côte D’Azur, where reference imagery is always fun, designer and full of colour.WW created the name X.B as a nod to the original cocktail name, enabling the brand to expand into further cocktails in the future. The white bottle, easily visible within a club, comes in 750ml, magnum and jeroboam all featuring waisted Gallic red stripes in contrast to the straight edged bottle.

A brand character was also devised reminiscent of the period: Belle with her parasol features on the packaging and offers the brand a fun tone of voice as well as an easily recognisable motif.X.B won the ‘Best New Brand 2012’ award at the recent MICS awards in Monaco. It has now been launched in Paris, London, Madrid, Ibiza and the US and is expanding across France in 2013/14.