Getting drinkers to go for liqueurs in hot weather is no mean feat. Christmas is the traditional sales peak for liqueur brands, but some of the biggest are discarding their knitted jumpers and slipping into something more seductive and summery.
In the past few months, Baileys, Galliano and Grand Marnier have revealed plans for a makeover. Meanwhile, style-conscious Italian liqueur Disaronno has been using on-pack promotions in a bid to lure young women to liqueur cocktails.
Mark Collins, senior brand manager at First Drinks, the UK distributor of Disaronno, acknowledges the makeover trend. "A lot of liqueur brands are trying to break the mould," he says, because they have recognised that "one of the biggest opportunities is driving sales in summertime".
Disaronno has seen healthy sales growth in recent years. Collins says that in the past six years, sales of the brand have increased 150 per cent, with year-on-year rises of 20 to 25 per cent in the consumer and trade markets over the past 12 months. He attributes this impressive rise in part to last summer's "win a Vespa" promotion, and claims the brand is "really quite close to overtaking Cointreau" as the third-largest liqueur brand in the UK, according to Mintel's most recent market-share figures.
High season
Vital to this growth continuing, however, is convincing Disaronno's target audience - aspirational women in their 20s and 30s - that the brand is an ideal summer tipple. Collins describes this demographic as the "heartland" of the amaretto, and adds with a smile that this market "sees shopping as a sport". Hence the brand's traditional PR focus on fashion.
Jackie Marshall, account director at Toucan, which has been charged with promoting Disaronno, says: "We were asked to look at the brand's essence - effortless social style - and highlight its versatility."
Disaronno has a tricky balance to strike, Marshall notes. "It's a premium brand but we want to make it accessible," she says. Collins concedes that this is "a fine line to draw", but Marshall makes it clear that driving sales is the priority for the campaign.
Toucan's on-pack, off-trade promotion, called "Dive into Disaronno", will appear in mid-July on 100,000 bottles. The top prize is a luxury holiday for four in Sardinia, which was chosen to reflect the Italian provenance of the brand and its social image (the prize is for four, rather than two, people). The second prize is cocktail-making kit worth more than £100 from Italian brand Alessi. The third prize is a Disaronno-branded drink stirrer and tray, with a recipe for cocktails made with the liqueur and a 50p coupon for Ocean Spray cranberry juice (Toucan also works with the juice brand, and so was able to forge a partnership between the drinks companies).
The second and third prizes were designed to encourage the mixing of cocktails using the liqueur at home.
While the two biggest prizes have a strong Italian link - following on from last year's summer on-pack promotion, which featured a prize from iconic Italian scooter brand Vespa - that is not the only focus of the campaign, says Collins: "We're not trying to be overtly Italian. We like to explore around that and not be fixed." Consequently, the third prize this year showcases Disaronno's cocktail potential.
To comply with industry guidelines on competitions, the company cannot award a prize to every entrant, but Marshall says that "99 per cent of people will win something". As such, Disaronno cannot be accused of irresponsibly encouraging consumers to make repeat purchases of the product in the hope of winning a prize. Collins and Marshall will not reveal the total budget for the promotion, but Marshall explains that the prize fund is worth around £100,000.
The promotional bottle collar will include a unique code and details of the campaign microsite, where visitors can enter the number to find out if they have won a prize. The web-only, unique code mechanism is a first for the brand.
Collins explains that the technique was chosen because "our customer is web-savvy" and a lot of Disaronno's PR activity has strong digital elements.
The on-pack campaign follows on from the creation earlier this year of the UK Disaronno brand site, which Collins says was designed to foster "deeper interaction with our consumers" by providing information on the product's heritage and cocktail recipes. The current promotional microsite has prominent links to the main Disaronno site to encourage consumers to find out more about the brand.
Simple stuff
The promotion was designed to be fairly straightforward. "Any activity you do has to be engaging, but also easy for consumers to get into - otherwise you'll lose them," Collins says. "The older demographic targeted by other brands has more time to jump through hoops to enter things."
The on-pack promotion is not the only activity Disaronno is undertaking this summer. In June and July, the "Disaronno Amaretto Style Squad" returns for its second year, offering women in six UK cities the chance to win makeovers from leading hair and make-up stylists - along with dating advice and Disaronno cocktails prepared by an on-hand "mixologist".
The competition can be entered online and is being promoted through regional PR activity.
Disaronno is also running an on-trade promotion, with brand ambassadors visiting bars and encouraging customers to try cocktails mixed with the liqueur. This activity will be supported by trade kits that include branded pitchers and promotional material. The campaign, created by agency Caspa, has a consumer-facing style competition that gives customers an opportunity to win a personal makeover in London.
Both of these additional promotions are intended to demonstrate Disaronno's versatility and stylishness, but First Drinks decided it would not link either to the on-pack promotion.
Disaronno, then, is intent on capturing summer sales by showing it has more to its repertoire than "on the rocks" or "straight up". In venturing out from under the mistletoe, it must get drinkers to accept the brand as a tipple for anyone with taste, while retaining its sense of high style.
FACT FILE
北京赛车pk10: Dive into Disaronno
Live from: mid-July for eight weeks
Brief: to drive sales and promote the brand's use in cocktails
Redemption mechanism: online
IN MY VIEW
Getting the mix right is so important, and for a brand such as Disaronno, it has to be spot on. Disaronno has a problem - it's an established brand, and established can be shorthand for tired, boring and unspectacular, especially if your target market is women in their 20s and 30s. It's also a brand that has traditionally only sold well at Christmas and has found itself pigeon-holed.
Luckily, Disaronno has recognised this problem. It is trying to do a Baileys by using cocktails to drag its sales into the summer. The mix is right in some areas: the proposed "Style Squad" experiential is good, for example - the right incentive aimed at the right people in the right place.
To start with, the on-pack mechanic is sound: buy bottle, get code, go online and see if you win. The web is a convenient and effective entry method for the prize draw, plus entrants get driven to the main site afterwards - a bonus for the brand manager.But there is a problem with the prize mix, specifically the first prize. A trip to Italy doesn't sound like an idea that took long to come up with, but the real issue is the choice of Sardinia as the destination. The place is hardly a hotbed of effortless style and certainly not high on the list of Italian chic. What about Milan during Fashion Week? Or Capri, Sorrento, or Rome? Or even better, let the winner choose. There's just no sizzle.
However, the rest of the prize structure works for me. Alessi cocktail makers? Great! A sophisticated brand and a perfect association for Disaronno. Branded ice stirrers? Good brand cues, plus almost all purchasers will get one to keep the brand alive at home. Excellent - even more appeal. The Ocean Spray tie up? It fits the brief, reinforces the cocktail message, and probably shares cost. Oh, and it's one of the agency's other clients, so good for them.
So, what about the creative? This is where the campaign really comes apart. At first glance you could easily mistake it for a holiday offer as the copy is confusing and the "win" message is left until last at the base of the neck collar. The "Dive into Disaronno" message is meaningless and wastes valuable space. Overall the impression is a bit dull, not very stylish and certainly not at all that spectacular.
5 out of 10.
James Campbell, creative director at agency HRG