Irish Whisk(e)y

Nice puff piece in the Guardian about Bushmills Whiskey, who clearly paid for this journalists trip to the distillery. But a good feeling of the brand. Particularly liked the 'wonka like pipes'. Link here

Why does everbody hate me?

Seems lots of people hate these Ketel One ads.
But lots of people keep buying Ketel One.
Does standing out matter more than being liked?

Some age, others mature

Is Sean Connery the perfect face for a whisky ad?

IT'S ALL IN THE BLEND

BELLS whisky shows the value of blending...



Another take on blending, 'great collaborations' the fantasy football approach. This ad from the BBC shows a fantasy band line-up

LIVE LIFE TO THE MAX

PEPSI seem to OWN this line. Fair enough. It's been done a thousand differnt ways, but always with the same, hi-nrg spirit. In this post, I will try and cover all brands that say 'Seize the day' 'do more' 'live life' 'get the most out of life' etc...


First up, with Eva Longoria. Crikey, she's got a lot of energy.



Apparently a bit of a classic, this, but I really don't get the monkey.



"Don't worry. No sugar."



55DSL have a great take on this, where they simply use their name, 55 and say 'Live At least 55 Seconds Per Day'.





They also have a promotion, much like Chivas Regal, which is 'Junior Lucky Bastard'. The idea is, if you're interesting, 55DSL will pay you to travel the world, 'live their slogan' , and report back to 55DSL. Applications are via youtube videos.

EXPERIENCE

If you you have it, you don't need it. If you don't have it, you're never going to get any of it to start with. Yes, we're talking about 'experience'. Usually a 'manly' topic, experience, and 'the experienced man' are popular territories these days.

The classics, from OLD SPICE, with Bruce Cambell. Ahoy!





Other Old Spice stuff, 'The Experienced Man'(Wieden & Kennedy).







Another whisky brand, another take on 'experience' maturity, character. This time, Canadian Club. It also is an ok take on the strategic problem of it being 'your dad's drink'. How do you do it? Make your dad cool of course....





Some brands aim to 'give you an experience'. How about Smirnoff, for example, who have 'the Smirnoff Experience'. “We won’t tell you where you’re going and we’ll never tell you where you’ve been” they say. OK then!
Duran Duran and Mark Ronson, playing at the 'Smirnoff Experience' in Paris.

ENJOY THE JOURNEY

'Life's a journey'. It's familiar territory for advertising.
Here, I'll be adding campaigns for brands which want to claim the territory of 'The Journey'.

First up, SAMSONITE. Life's a Journey





Second, we have LLOYDS TSB from the UK. For the Journey (through life)





Third, is the LOUIS VUITTON Core Values campaign. It also combines with experience, and, in the print work, character, which we'll look at later.



DODGE has a car called The Journey. Their payoff, seems to be 'The Dodge Journey. If you can dream it, do it'. Not sure how many payoff's there are in one line, but it seems like a few.



Here's a link to an interesting story about advertisers using 'spirituality' and imagery such as 'enjoy the journey' in their ads.

Not content with claiming 'experience', Smirnoff also want to claim 'the journey'. Guess what? 10 lucky, and interesting people get to travel the world, courtesy of Smirnoff, and post their experiences on the web, on youtube. Haven't we heard that one somewhere before?Clicky for link

WHISKY UPDATE

Ballantines is going further with this festival
which has artists such as St Ettienne, Ian Brown and Goldfrapp performing in Madrid and Barcelona during the month of March/April.

WHISKY

Selling whisky's a tricky business. But it's big business. Unsurprisingly, just about everything has been tried, but there are a few trends that keep coming back in whisky marketing, and here's a few:

First, you’ve got tradition. This works especially well for Scotch whisky, and single malt whisky.

Here's one for Bowmore that pretty much defines the genre:




And again, for Old Grouse You can practically smell the heather...



Another whisky marketing area is status, just like these ads – Smile, it’s Suntory Time.

The first clip is of course, not an ad, but a scene from a film. or is it an advertorial? I'm not quite sure, but at any rate, it gets across another classic whisky 'area', that of status. You've arrived.



These ads, which surely are the best celebrity placement ads ever, have everything associated with status. Maybe that's where Sophia got the idea for this scene from?



Another one, this time with 'status smoking.'



And another, this time using a celebrity (more of those later)



Johnnie Walker is, of course, the ultimate status whisky brand, with it's message that to achieve success, or one great thing, you just have to keep walking.





This is closely linked to character.

Here's an ad for Ballantines, that takes a similar angle to Johnnie Walker (which tells us to become immortal by doing 'one great thing'. They tell us to 'leave an impression'.























In fact, marketing whisky is either a choice between funky or fusty, as this article in Beverage Weekly says.


Or, you can choose the most popular option. A blend – tradition with a twist.





And then, there's always another approach. Sell it as if it's a beer. That means using humour, and lots of matey slaps on the back.



Here's another in the William Lawsons series, this time with Sharon Stone, and a spoof of her most famous moment






A different take on this, is the party approach - in other words, sell it like it's a vodka:

















And lastly, if none of these approaches work, you can try something totally different.

You could even try telling the truth - it'll make you drunk, and forget your hard day at the office:



And how about this one, with artist Joseph Beuys? Cheers!