Schweppes Reclaims Its Identity With I Like It Like That

The Strategic Insight Behind Schweppes' Lifestyle Pivot in France

Schweppes entered the 2021 French market at a moment when non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beverages were gaining serious cultural traction among younger consumers. The brand's challenge was not awareness — it was context. Schweppes had long been read as a supporting actor in the drinks world, the tonic that makes the gin. "I Like It Like That" is the campaign that argues for a different reading entirely.

TBWA\Paris grounded the strategy in a lifestyle genre rather than a product-feature register, a deliberate choice that signals confidence in the brand's inherent appeal rather than a need to explain or justify it. The creative rationale, as documented on clapboard.com, centers on repositioning Schweppes as a sophisticated yet approachable choice for consumers who value self-expression — people for whom what they drink communicates something about who they are. In France, this resonates within a broader cultural context where beverage choice carries social meaning.

The competitive landscape adds urgency to this pivot. Coca-Cola and PepsiCo remain the dominant forces in the carbonated soft drinks category globally. The global carbonated soft drinks market was valued at USD 285.42 billion in 2021, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 4.3 percent through 2028, according to Grand View Research. Within that environment, a heritage brand like Schweppes — owned by Coca-Cola in several European markets — must carve differentiated territory or risk being subsumed by category defaults. By positioning around individuality and lifestyle rather than flavour or function, TBWA\Paris created a lane that neither Coca-Cola's mass-market core nor PepsiCo's youth-focused positioning occupies in the same way. It is worth noting that before TBWA\Paris took the account, BETC Paris had handled Schweppes France creative work, most notably a 2018 campaign rooted in sophisticated nightlife and premium consumption, per clapboard.com. The agency transition between 2018 and 2021 marks a meaningful creative shift in tone and ambition.

Romain Chassaing and the Craft Behind Schweppes' Most Ambitious French Film

Romain Chassaing directed and served as director of photography on "I Like It Like That," according to bestadsontv.com, bringing a dual creative authority to the film that gives it visual coherence rarely achieved when these roles are separated. Chassaing's involvement as both DOP and director meant every compositional decision in the frame served a unified aesthetic intention — a disciplined approach that is evident in the finished film's confident, unhurried visual language.

Production was handled by Solab Films, with Edouard Chassaing credited as producer and executive producer, per bestadsontv.com. The film was shot in Sofia, Bulgaria, as documented on bestadsontv.com, though it was produced entirely for the French market and its European rollout. Post-production was managed by ELSE, which also served as sound house, with Manuel Coutant credited as post-production editor and Jonathan Lagache as VFX supervisor, all per bestadsontv.com. Jérôme Olivera handled 3D supervision, also per bestadsontv.com.

The music is central to the campaign's identity. The track is a reorchestrated version of Pete Rodriguez's "I Like It Like That," originally composed by Tony Pabon and Manny Rodriguez and published by EMI Longitude Music, according to bestadsontv.com. The reorchestration was arranged by Vanny Jordan, with live musicians recorded in Medellín, Colombia, as documented on bestadsontv.com and leclubdesda.org. This decision to use live international musicians rather than a studio-produced approximation speaks to the production's commitment to texture and authenticity — qualities that align directly with the brand's repositioned personality.

The executive creative directors on the campaign were Benjamin Marchal and Faustin Claverie of TBWA\Paris, with Philippe Rachel and Carl Harborg serving as creative directors and art directors respectively, as credited on bestadsontv.com and confirmed through clapboard.com. The separation of executive creative direction from hands-on creative direction suggests a campaign that benefited from both senior strategic oversight and focused executional craft.

Measuring the Impact of Schweppes' I Like It Like That Campaign

Schweppes' "I Like It Like That" earned a Clapboard Score of 63 out of 100, reflecting a campaign that executes its strategic intent with clear craft and cultural awareness while stopping short of the kind of measurable disruption that earns top-tier scores. The score indicates a solid, well-constructed piece of brand communication rather than a category-defining breakthrough.

Verified third-party performance metrics for the campaign beyond platform-level engagement are not publicly available. What the available data does reveal is directionally useful. The film accumulated 43,244 views and 354 likes on YouTube, with 32 comments, figures that suggest meaningful but not viral engagement for a campaign of this scale and distribution. Given that the campaign ran across television, digital, and print channels in France and was planned for rollout across more than twelve European countries per clapboard.com and bestadsontv.com, the YouTube figures represent only one visible slice of a broader media footprint.

Structurally, the campaign demonstrates several hallmarks of effective brand repositioning work. The music-led creative device is immediately legible and emotionally accessible. The lifestyle framing sidesteps product-category clichés. The production quality — from Romain Chassaing's direction to the live Medellín recording session — signals genuine investment in craft. These are the conditions under which brand perception shifts occur over time rather than through a single measurable spike, and they suggest that "I Like It Like That" was designed as a long-term identity investment for Schweppes in France rather than a short-term performance activation.