AN EXTRAORDINARY TURNAROUND

We helped Drambuie to reverse a long period of sales decline to a 17% sales increase in the first year of this campaign, with 34% growth in emerging markets. A Taste Of The Extraordinary is an instructive example of how a strong ‘big idea’ and high-end creativity can support both premium brand advertising and strongly-performing sales-driving activity. Strong sales and a rejuvenated brand enabled a lucrative sale ahead of plan.

When Drambuie approached us they were experiencing year on year sales decline. This was in part down to changing habits and fashion. A steady decline of formal dining meant fewer people ordering liqueurs. People didn’t have an occasion to drink Drambuie, and a whole generation of drinkers didn’t ever really know what it was. A big impact was needed.

DRAMBUIE 48 SHEET OUTDOOR POSTER

We had to attract a new generation of customers – and give older ones a big wake up call. To take advantage of the growth of the brown spirits category, the Drambuie marketing team took the bold step of moving Drambuie out of the liqueur category and into the spirit market. They redesigned the bottle so that the golden liquid could be seen, and developed new mixed drinks and cocktails with top mixologists. Then they came to us for the impact.

DRAMBUIE ‘EXTRAORDINARY BAR’ TV/CINEMA/ONLINE COMMERCIAL

In the category, advertising was becoming increasingly literal and ‘samey’. Gone were the amazing campaigns that built the great drinks brands, it had all become boring and rational ‘target-market-drinking-serve’. Sometimes it was even quite hard to tell different brands apart. This might be okay if you’re a big conglomerate with huge budgets. If you’re a smaller independent like Drambuie, you need every pound or dollar of your budget to work hard, and that’s why people like Drambuie come to us.

DRAMBUIE 48 SHEET OUTDOOR POSTER

While the category went boring and rational, we made Drambuie surreal and extraordinary. We created a new tagline that promised the audience a real taste experience, but we didn’t just come up with a tagline, we created a whole unique brand world for Drambuie to exist in. It made every piece of advertising stand out from the crowd and get noticed – and made it uniquely Drambuie. With the brand and product at the heart of every piece of communication, the splash of gold liquid in the black and white surreal world. While the striking photographs were a strong visual metaphor for the depth of taste.

DRAMBUIE 15 MASTER IMAGE

This extraordinary brand world gave Drambuie a truly distinctive look in the category and also highly distinctive brand assets to use beyond advertising. It made point of sale, promotional packaging and seasonal offers more noticeable and distinctive. A Taste of The Extraordinary made a powerful vehicle for experiential, sampling events and themed nights around the globe.

DRAMBUIE SEASONAL PRIME OUTDOOR, DOWNTOWN DENVER, USA

DRAMBUIE EVENTS AND PROMOTIONS AROUND THE GLOBE

In the second year of the campaign, we designed limited edition packaging for the ultra-compeitive Christmas and global travel retail markets. Positioned next to regular packaging the distinctive black and white zig-zag designs outsold the standard bottles four to one. Some customers have even kept these bottles and refill them from new bottles.

DRAMBUIE PROMOTIONAL PACKAGING

The Drambuie website became a place to find new recipe ideas and also a surreal world to explore.

DRAMBUIE WEBSITE SELECTED PAGES

A Taste Of The Extraordinary helped Drambuie undergo a period of rejuvenation of the brand and sales, with a 17% sales increase and 34% growth in emerging markets in the first year alone enabling the owners to action its aim of a lucrative acquisition and exit, well ahead of plan.

To find out more about this work or to chat about how we might be able to help you, please get in touch