By popular demand, we are back with Flavor Madness 2021.
This year's 64-team March Madness style bracket has a twist! It’s a battle between Hard Seltzer and Canned Cocktails--which beverage will win America’s favorite ready-to-drink alcohol?
One side of our bracket will track America’s top hard seltzer flavor while the other side tracks America’s favorite canned cocktail flavor. The categories will meet in the final round for head to head battle. The only way to find out which category wins is to follow along!
So how were the flavors chosen for this 64 team field of flavors?
We conducted hours of preliminary research and developed a competitive bracket based on:
• The top 50 flavors in hard seltzers/canned cocktail category
• The fastest growing flavors in food service
• Plus additional exciting flavors from our proprietary TrendScope® research
Our four regions are based on Symrise TrendScope® Megatrends including Natural Goodness, Premium Indulgence, Healthy Lifestyle and Emotional Discoveries.
Symrise Category experts met and ranked the flavors.
To capture 16 teams in each regional bracket, we started by placing the top 4 overall flavors as the #1 seed in each region, the last overall flavors became the regions #16 seed and we repeated this until all teams were spoken for.
How will the winners be chosen?
Sorry, we will not be asking you to taste for a winner!
Instead, flavor matchups will be selected by category consumers across the U.S. through our online consumer intelligence platform. Our platform allows us unparalleled speed and the ability to reach any consumer target to instantly validate flavor appeal across a wide range of product categories. We have roughly 5,000 consumers that will help us determine which flavors move on to the next round and which Ready To Drink Alcohol flavors do not stack up.
Receive Flavor Madness 2021 updates with the Weekly In-sight Newsletter, CLICK HERE!
Below is a printable version of our Flavor Madness 2021 Bracket. Print it out, play along and subscribe to In-sight for updates.
We will be providing insights on the most popular Ready To Drink Alcohol flavors as chosen by consumers, top trends in the sweet category and hopefully inspire innovative concepts.
CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FLAVOR MADNESS 2021 BRACKET!
Join our challenge virtually and email your bracket to beau.collins@symrise.com by March 19th 12:05PM EST (1 entry per email, saved as SymriseFlavorMadness_ParticipantNickname [to remain confidential]). Ex: SymriseFlavorMadness_SeltzerScientist.
