Introduction

Soft drink brands keep their famous products fresh by launching new flavours. Limited editions and flavour variants create excitement, attract new buyers and give retailers something new to promote. In recent years, many of these launches have focused on zero-sugar versions, responding to shoppers who want bold taste with less sugar.

This case study describes how Dsigngo Group designed a launch poster for two zero-sugar flavour variants from a global cola brand, a raspberry ripple flavour and a cherry and vanilla flavour. The poster was produced for a UK-based food and beverage export distributor that supplies trade buyers in international markets. The design combines summer festival atmosphere, playful flavour badges, a dramatic cola splash and three simple benefit icons.

The client and context

The client was a UK-based distributor and exporter of branded food and beverages, promoting its range to importers, wholesalers and retailers through social media and digital trade materials.

The products were two 330 ml-style cans in distinctive colours: a bright pink can for the raspberry ripple flavour and a purple can for the cherry and vanilla flavour, both carrying the brand’s iconic circular logo and zero-sugar messaging.

The brief

The distributor wanted a poster that would:

• Introduce two new flavours together.
• Communicate excitement, refreshment and fun.
• Make each flavour easy to identify.
• Highlight zero sugar and bold taste.
• Include the distributor’s logo, website and “Order Now” button.
• Work in portrait format for social media and digital catalogues.

The challenge

Two flavours, equal attention

Both flavours needed to be presented with equal importance, while still looking like a coordinated launch.

Communicating flavour visually

Flavour is about taste, but posters can only show it through colour, imagery and words. The design needed to make the flavours feel tangible.

Balancing benefits and emotion

Zero sugar is an important benefit, but it should not make the poster feel clinical. The design needed to be fun and indulgent while still communicating the benefit.

Standing out in a category of giants

Soft drink advertising is dominated by large, polished campaigns. A distributor’s poster needed to look equally confident.

Research and insight

Our team considered when people enjoy flavoured soft drinks: summer gatherings, festivals, outdoor events and evenings with friends. These moments are colourful, social and lively.

We also noted that the flavour names suggest dessert-like indulgence, raspberry ripple and cherry vanilla, while the zero-sugar promise removes guilt. The insight was to combine a festive, social setting with a dramatic, indulgent splash, then make the zero-sugar benefit clear through simple icons.

The creative concept

The concept is “refresh your every moment”. The two cans float above a large, swirling cola splash, set against a blurred evening festival scene with string lights, colourful tents and people enjoying themselves. A bold red script headline at the top invites viewers to refresh every moment of their day.

Circular badges on each side identify the flavours, in colours that match each can. At the bottom, three white line icons highlight zero sugar, bold flavour and iconic taste, followed by the distributor’s “Order Now” button and website.

Design decisions

Composition

The two cans are angled towards each other, forming a “V” that draws the eye to the centre. The splash below anchors them and adds energy. The headline at the top and icons at the bottom frame the composition.

Colour

The pink and purple cans set the palette, supported by warm festival lights and the amber brown of the cola splash. The red headline connects to the brand’s own colours. The evening sky provides a deep blue background that makes the bright cans stand out.

Flavour badges

Circular badges, one pink and one purple, name each flavour in bold white capitals. Matching colours link each badge to its can, so viewers know which flavour is which at a glance.

The splash

The cola splash adds drama, refreshment and movement. Its dynamic curves suggest pouring and fizz, making the drinks feel cold and inviting.

Benefit icons

Three simple icons with short labels communicate key benefits without paragraphs of text. Icons are quick to read and work well on mobile screens.

Headline

The headline uses a bold, flowing script in red with white outlines, giving a fun, celebratory feel. Script typography suggests personality and enjoyment.

Distributor footer

The footer follows the distributor’s standard layout: “Order Now” button on the left and website on the right, with the distributor’s logo at the top right.

Our design process

1. Asset gathering: can images, brand logos, flavour names, benefits and distributor details.
2. Concept development: comparing studio, beach and festival settings before choosing the festival evening scene.
3. Visual creation: combining cans, splash, background and lighting.
4. Layout and typography: headline, badges, icons and footer.
5. Accuracy review: confirming flavour names and benefit wording.
6. Client approval and final files.

Lighting and effects

The cans were lit with highlights along their edges and subtle reflections from the festival lights, making them look cold and glossy. Small droplets suggest chill. The splash was shaped and coloured to look natural, with highlights and transparency. Background blur and warm bokeh lights create depth and atmosphere.

The zero-sugar trend

Shoppers in many markets are paying closer attention to sugar. Governments in several countries, including Sri Lanka, have introduced measures such as colour-coded sugar labelling for beverages, and many brands now offer zero-sugar versions of popular drinks. Zero-sugar variants allow shoppers to enjoy familiar flavours with less sugar, and they help brands meet regulatory expectations and retailer requirements.

For marketing, the key is to present zero sugar as a positive feature without making the drink seem less enjoyable. Pairing the benefit with indulgent flavours and an exciting setting achieves this balance.

Launching flavour variants

New flavours succeed when:

• Shoppers notice them quickly on shelf and online.
• The flavour is easy to understand from the name and colours.
• Trial is encouraged through promotions and sampling.
• Retailers stock them alongside the core product.
• The launch has a clear, time-limited sense of excitement.

Our blog article on why many new FMCG products fail explains how to plan launches that build trial and repeat purchase.

Supporting trade buyers

For importers and retailers, a launch poster should be supported with:

• Product sheets with barcodes, can sizes, case configurations and shelf life.
• Information on label languages and compliance.
• Suggested promotions and display ideas.
• Availability windows for limited editions.

Adapting for in-store and consumer use

Once in stores, the visual can be adapted for chiller stickers, shelf strips, posters near drinks fridges and social media posts for retailers. For consumers, the focus shifts to flavour and refreshment, removing trade details.

Building a summer campaign

The festival theme can extend into a summer campaign series, showing the cans at the beach, at a barbecue, on a road trip or at a sports event. Keeping the headline style, flavour badges and splash consistent would create a recognisable campaign across many posts.

Designing for social media performance

• Bright pink and purple cans stand out in feeds.
• The splash adds movement that catches the eye.
• Icons communicate benefits instantly.
• The headline is short and memorable.

Measuring success

Distributors can track trade enquiries, orders, engagement and website visits from each post. Comparing launch posts with core-product posts helps show how much interest new flavours generate.

Working within brand guidelines

Global soft drink brands protect their identities carefully. Logos, can artwork, colour values, typefaces and the way products are shown are usually defined in brand guidelines, and distributors and retailers are expected to follow them. A distributor that changes a can’s colour or reshapes the logo risks a request to withdraw its material.

Our approach was to treat the cans and logos as fixed assets. We used approved product images, kept every logo at its original proportions with clear space around it, and never placed text or effects over the brand mark. The creativity came from everything around the product: the setting, the splash, the lighting, the headline style and the layout. This separation lets the distributor create original marketing while staying respectful of the brand owner’s rules.

Where the distributor had any doubt about wording, for example how to describe the flavours or the zero-sugar claim, we recommended using the exact phrases printed on the can or in the brand owner’s trade materials.

Building the colour story

Colour carries most of the meaning in a flavour launch. Each flavour needs its own colour, and the two colours need to look good together.

The pink of the raspberry ripple can suggests berries, ice cream and summer desserts. The purple of the cherry and vanilla can suggests dark fruit and richness. Placed side by side, they create a warm-to-cool contrast that feels balanced rather than competing.

We then built the rest of the palette around these two anchors:

• The deep blue evening sky gives both cans a dark, calm backdrop, which makes their colours glow.
• Warm string lights in yellow and orange add festival energy and connect to the amber cola splash.
• The red headline links back to the brand’s heritage colours without clashing with the pink and purple.
• White icons and badge text keep supporting information clean and readable on every background.

This palette is also practical. Because the flavour colours are fixed, they can be reused across every future post in the series, so shoppers learn to link pink with one flavour and purple with the other.

Typography in detail

The poster uses three levels of type, each with a clear job.

1. The script headline sets the mood. It is the only decorative type on the poster, which keeps it special and stops the layout from feeling busy.
2. The flavour names on the badges use bold, condensed capitals. They need to be read in a fraction of a second, so legibility matters more than personality.
3. The icon labels and footer use a clean sans serif at a smaller size. They are supporting information, read after the main message has landed.

We checked every line of text at mobile size. Script headlines can become hard to read on small screens, so we chose a heavy weight, added a white outline for contrast against the busy background and kept the phrase short.

Creating realistic product visuals

Drinks advertising depends on making the product look cold, fresh and tempting. Several small details work together to achieve this:

• Edge highlights along the can show its shape and metallic finish.
• Condensation droplets suggest the drink has just come out of the fridge.
• Reflections of the festival lights tie the cans into the scene, so they do not look pasted on.
• A soft shadow beneath each can connects it to the splash below.
• The splash includes bubbles and translucent edges, so it reads as fizzy liquid rather than a solid shape.

Each layer was kept separate in the working file. This makes it simple to reuse the cans and splash with a different background for later posts, saving time across the campaign.

Accessibility and legibility

A poster that some viewers cannot read loses part of its audience. We applied a few simple checks:

• Text contrast was reviewed against its background, especially for the white icon labels.
• Flavours are identified by both colour and words, so viewers with colour vision differences can still tell them apart.
• Important information is kept away from the edges, where social platforms may crop or overlay buttons.
• The number of messages is limited to one headline, two flavour names and three benefits.

Planning the launch calendar

A single poster is most effective as part of a planned sequence. For a flavour launch, we typically suggest a simple calendar for the distributor:

• Teaser: a cropped view of the cans or splash with “Something new is coming”.
• Launch: the full poster, shared across social media, email and trade catalogues.
• Focus posts: one post for each flavour, using its own colour and badge.
• Availability reminders: posts highlighting stock, case sizes and ordering details.
• Last call: for limited editions, a reminder that stock is running out.

Each stage reuses the same assets, so the campaign stays consistent and the production effort stays manageable.

Adapting for different markets

The distributor’s buyers are spread across several regions, so the poster may need local versions.

• Gulf markets: Arabic headlines and benefit labels, right-to-left layouts, and checks that festival imagery suits local audiences and seasons.
• South Asian markets: attention to local sugar labelling rules, such as Sri Lanka’s colour-coded sugar levels for liquid beverages, and to import labelling requirements.
• European markets: checks on how zero-sugar and sweetener information must be shown on packs and in marketing.

In every case, the core artwork stays the same, and only text, labels and small details change.

Deliverables

• Launch poster for social media and digital catalogues.
• Print-ready version for trade presentations and exhibitions.

What made this project work

• A lively, social setting that matches how people enjoy soft drinks.
• Clear flavour identification through matching colours and badges.
• A dramatic splash that communicates refreshment.
• Simple icons that explain benefits quickly.
• A consistent distributor footer.

Lessons for brands and distributors

• Present multiple variants with equal prominence and clear identification.
• Use colour to link products, badges and messages.
• Communicate benefits with icons rather than long text.
• Pair health-related benefits with enjoyment.
• Support launches with trade information and in-store materials.

Relevance for local beverage brands

Sri Lankan beverage brands, from soft drinks to iced teas and juices, can apply the same principles: clear flavour colour coding, simple benefit icons, lively settings and compliance with sugar labelling rules. Our packaging and campaign teams help local brands launch new flavours in Sri Lanka, the UAE and export markets.

Frequently asked questions

Can you design launch campaigns for new flavours?

Yes. We design launch posters, social media series, in-store materials and packaging for new flavours and limited editions.

How do you show flavour in a visual?

Through colour, ingredient imagery, splashes, textures and clear flavour names, combined in a way that feels appetising and fun.

Can you include sugar or nutrition information?

Yes. We can present approved nutrition information and any required labels, such as colour-coded sugar indicators, in packaging and trade materials.

Can you create video versions of the poster?

Yes. Splashes, lights and cans can be animated for social media and digital screens.

Do you design for local beverage brands too?

Yes. We work with Sri Lankan and regional beverage brands on packaging, campaigns and launches.

Can the poster be adapted for Gulf markets?

Yes. We adapt headlines, badges and benefits into Arabic and adjust layouts for right-to-left reading.

Conclusion

This flavour launch poster shows how two new variants can be introduced with energy, clarity and fun. A festival setting, matching flavour badges, a dramatic splash and simple benefit icons make the zero-sugar flavours feel exciting and easy to understand, while the distributor footer turns interest into orders.

Launching new flavours or limited editions? Talk to Dsigngo Group about launch campaigns that create excitement.

Plan Your Flavour Launch

Sources

• Dsigngo Group project files.
• Sri Lanka Food (Colour Coding for Sugar Levels – Liquid) Regulations 2022, Gazette No. 2319/42.