SPOTLIGHT ON ALCOHOL BRANDS - JOHN PALLANT

We know a thing or two about the alcoholic drinks sector. All three of the BLITZWORKS founders have worked for major drinks clients – and continue to do so in our current venture.

Therefore, in any normal year, the run up to the festive season is of particular interest. Which agencies are creatively on fire, who’s making the challenging moves strategically, who’s managing to put a new spin on classic seasonal ideas.

But last year was clearly no ordinary year – and there seems to have been understandable caution when it came to a lot of 2020 ‘holiday season’ advertising.

However, let’s give credit where credit is due, and there were a few brands that popped up on our radar.

First of all, a notable repositioning exercise from Jack Daniels,

which has been reaching out to a new demographic with its first ever global campaign. It’s a big idea, and a confident and accomplished launch spot. The line is ‘Make it Count’, inspiring you to do all the things you have always wanted to. This feels like it could run and run, with even more interesting scenarios to come, and work well across all channels.  We look forward to seeing how this develops.

A new multi-media global campaign from Singapore for Absolut Vodka

celebrates real human connections, and kicks off with a big launch film featuring four celebrities breaking free from their respective virtual worlds to meet in an idyllic setting in real life, with the tagline ‘It’s in Our Spirit’. Their online lives are depicted in different styles of animation, while the climactic scene is live action. It’s very watchable, and captures how we are all feeling at the moment, not least younger drinkers at whom it is aimed. And, of course, the idea has the potential to keep going well beyond these current times.

Lesser known French aperitif Lillet

also launched a global campaign. It aims to appeal to women with the idea that it can be drunk in many different ways and so, just like the free-spirited lives they lead, it is ‘Yours to Define’. Familiar territory, and not the catchiest line, but the launch spot is stylish without taking itself too seriously. We believe the campaign has the potential to go much further, and we hope it does.

More memorable is Stella’s line, ‘The Life Artois’.

And their Christmas film, simple as it is, is impossible not to like: twenty seconds of animated gorgeousness accompanied by a luscious rendition of La Vie en Rose by Celeste. This too, is a relatively new creative platform finding its way, and one that is surely full of possibilities.

There was also another alluring alternative life offered to us in the form of ‘The Endless Dolce Vita’ of Disaronno.

With images of effortless style and the moody glamour of Rome’s cityscapes, it’s a good place to start, but it needs something more. Storytelling, perhaps? We would love to see them build on this.

Heineken’s ‘Holidays as Usual’.

spot, produced for multiple markets, also stood out, not as a big platform idea, but as a one off, managing to acknowledge what a challenging year it has been, while also delivering an upbeat resolution, and without the usual clichés. No mean feat.

And we couldn’t end this without asking if you unleashed your Home-Party Animals over the holidays? You might have done, if you’d been drinking Budweiser in China.

Inspired by Disco Wolf and Smiley Cat! There’s an idea here. It’s not quite the way we would have done it.  But, so what.

And the quirky advertising is supported by a range of games and props to enhance the home party experience.

So, there you have it – despite circumstances that were to put it mildly, less than promising, it has still been a decent year for the sector.

And let’s leave you with one last thought – a namecheck for Diageo’s

Seedlip, which ran its first ever ad campaign last year, majoring on out-of-home executions.

We are seeing the unstoppable growth of a whole new low-and-no-alcohol spirit sector here.  And indeed, the campaign’s line was ‘Drink to the Future’.

Wildly speculative? Or prophetic?

It’s going to be interesting, this year, to find out which.

Cheers!

JOHN PALLANT is Global Chief Creative Officer at BLITZWORKS.