Advertising support is going back behind Teacher's blended whisky for the first time in four years. The year round campaign began this week in the national newspapers and the specialist hobby press. It is designed to be topical and catch the attention of core whisky drinkers and encourage them to drink more and trade up to the brand. The ads will be based on the strapline The Strong Taste of Teacher's. For the Fire Inside You'. Richard Hayes, brand director at Allied Domecq, said: "In the last couple of years we have done a lot of work below the line, but there is only so much you can do with price promotions. "There is an untapped market of blended whisky drinking men in their 50s and 60s who drink five or six bottles a year. If we can persuader them to trade up through advertising it will be good for us and our customers. "And we think we have found the right route to do this. This means supplementing the existing promotional activity with an advertising message. "Some of our customers have used price very effectively but I have some investment which can build the consumer franchise." Hayes said both suppliers and retailers have been getting cleverer at making the promotional slots work and better category management has made these more effective in boosting sales. "Some of our competitors have been working on attracting new consumers to the category. The Teacher's ads are about changing the behaviour of the existing ones. This can make a huge impact. There are 15 million blended whisky drinkers out there." The sector is recording static sales after years of decline throughout the 1990s. Within that AC Nielsen reports that Teacher's has been growing 8.5% in volume and 5.1% in vale. {{DRINKS }}