Beverage Brands boosts WKD spend to £18m

Beverage Brands is investing a claimed &£18m this year on marketing its flavoured alcoholic beverage brand WKD to boost its market share, an increase of &£5.5m on last year’s total marketing spend.

The company says that half of this spend will be on above-the-line advertising, including a TV campaign, a 48-sheet outdoor campaign and radio advertising. The brand will also be advertised for the first time in cinemas and on the underground on cross-track projections.

The other half will be spent on through-the-line activity, such as pub promotions, sampling campaigns and sponsorship deals.

Beverage Brands claims that since its launch in 1995, WKD has grown into a &£350m brand and is the third best-selling flavoured alcoholic beverage.

The company, which also owns Woody’s and VR, recently launched a 40 per cent ABV shot called WKD 40, which will initially be marketed in pubs and bars.

Marketing manager Karen Salters says: “With demand for WKD increasing, we have decided to increase our investment in the brand to &£18m. This follows last year’s increase of marketing spend to &£12m, which is an increase of &£6m from the year before. With the shots market growing, it is the right time to launch our WKD 40 brand .”

Beverage Brands’ advertising agency is Big Communications. Media is handled by John Ayling and Associates.