Spirits giant Pernod Ricard is to ramp up its Christmas marketing spend, with a 50% higher investment behind its key spirit brands planned for the coming festive season.
It will kick off four above the line campaigns behind Absolut, Jameson, Plymouth Gin and Beefeater Pink from October onwards playing up the drinks’ viability with cocktails. However, it did not put a figure to the investment.
The Absolut push, called ‘Drinkspiration’, will highlight the vodka brand’s flavoured portfolio, while Jameson ads will be focused on Caskmates, its duo of whiskies aged in craft beer barrels.
Plymouth Gin’s campaign, meanwhile, would be “a play on the ‘Bucks Fizz’ moment, about how you might start the Christmas day with a champagne but bring gin into it”, said Pernod customer marketing controller Ravinder Atwal.
Lastly, the push for Beefeater Pink will be a continuation of its current ‘Pink Your Gin’ message.
All of the campaigns “link into what’s going on in the on-trade and bringing that communication through to supermarket shelves”, said Atwal. “We weren’t investing enough in above the line at a period of time when [shoppers] are taking in 10,000 pieces of communication in a day.
It comes on the back of in-house research which suggested one of the largest drivers (30%) of spirits purchases at Christmas was shoppers having had a positive experience with a brand in the on-trade, added Pernod commercial director Chris Ellis. “The on-trade is shifting completely into a premium spirits market.”
There would also be a “big availability” push into retail, said Atwal. “We’ll be getting stock out there, with front of store pallets and making sure we’re part of retailer media campaigns”. For independents there would be a “core sales drive with lots of bespoke PoS material”.
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