With Halloween falling on a weekend this year, HEINEKEN UK is helping retailers to tap into one of the season’s biggest beer and cider trading moments with a seasonal extension of its Strongbow’s ‘Refreshing the Nation’ campaign, focusing on Strongbow Dark Fruit, the UK’s number one flavoured cider at Halloween1. Launching from October 2026, the campaign aims to help retailers maximise cider sales in the build-up to the spooky season and maintain consumer excitement outside of the expected summer cider season.
Building on the success of last year’s ‘Spine-chilling Refreshment’ campaign, the activity aims to supercharge consumers’ affinity with the brand at Halloween with a social media promotion, a Strongbow Dark Fruit 4-pack giveaway, and a university party sampling activity. The campaign will also include on-pack promotions, limited edition Halloween sleeves and supporting POS materials in select stores.
The campaign leverages Strongbow’s overarching ‘Refreshing the Nation’ campaign which rolled out earlier this year, with a continuation of regional phrases on packs with a spooky twist, including ‘dead good’ and ‘wicked’. The seasonal push aims to give retailers the opportunity to amplify cider all year round, especially Halloween where Strongbow Dark Fruit becomes a standout brand within the HEINEKEN UK portfolio.
Halloween is the biggest trading week during the autumn season in value sales, in 2025 beer and cider sales reached £373m2 across grocery and convenience in the lead up to, and across the Halloween period. During the lead up to Halloween, Strongbow Dark Fruit over-indexes during this period with sales value increasing to 29%3, generating £463K4 in incremental spend for the brand between early October to early November 2025. Halloween is a major drinks occasion and a great opportunity for retailers to stock up on high performing, seasonal brands such as Strongbow Dark Fruit, creating prominent displays to help drive sales during such a critical time.
Max Wainwright, Brand Unit Director Cider at HEINEKEN UK, comments: “The return of our Strongbow Halloween campaign is a testament to the success of last year, we recognise the importance and opportunity. Strongbow Dark Fruit has a natural fit to Halloween, and our seasonal campaign is designed to help retailers build excitement, increase visibility and keep cider front of mind for consumers beyond the summer months. Halloween is a fantastic event for retailers and wholesalers to get involved with. Especially with it falling on a weekend this year, we expect that adults up and down the country will come together to celebrate and host gatherings”.
Retailers can find out more about how to maximise their cider category sales at Halloween by visiting HEINEKEN UK’s Star Retailer platform at www.starretailer.co.uk/. The Star Retailer scheme is an acclaimed, industry-acknowledged loyalty scheme providing beer and cider category guidance tailored for convenience stores. The scheme encourages the development of a profitable and trending beer and cider range and offers rewards which increase based on their level of participation.
Strongbow Dark Fruit is available in the following formats:
- 4x440ml can (RRP* £5.70)
- 4x568ml can (RRP* £7.75)
- 10x440ml can (RRP* £13.00)
- 15x440ml can (RRP* £17.00)
*Recommended Retail Price (RRP) is a guide only, prices are set at the sole discretion of the retailer
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