First Drinks revamps Zubrowka vodka
First Drinks is to launch a raft of marketing initiatives targeting older drinkers as it looks to premiumise its Zubrowka vodka brand.
The drinks company is embarking on an 18-month marketing campaign to reposition the Polish vodka brand in the UK.
Activity will have strong experiential focus at places such as bars and at outdoor events hosted by actors the brand calls the ’ ‘Zubrowka Ensemble of Woodland Performers’ with an aim to create advocates among bartenders and drinkers. The company says it plans on building a database of drinkers who attend its experiential events to launch more targeted promotions in the future.
A digital drive will also launch in the coming months that will centre around activty on its new “mash-up” site, which will host all user-generated content from its social media channels.
The strategy targets 25 -to-40 year old “authenticity-seeking drinkers” with a new look created by Purple Creative using the illustrations of artist Kristjana S Williams. It follows First Drinks acquiring the distribution rights to the drink in July.
Hayley Aldous, senior brand manager for vodkas at First Drinks, says with this new branding and creative strategy the Zubrowka brand is doing the “complete opposite” to what its rivals are doing. She adds that the spirit is also having a growing relevance with a broader mix of drinkers due to its heritage.
She says: “Strategically our aim is to target an older, more discerning consumers than the previous distributor of Zubrowka. We’ve inherited a brand with great equity and as such we aren’t targeting students anymore.”
Rival spirits producer Diageo, announced earlier this year that it intended to give both its Johnnie Walker and Bushmills brands younger appeal in a bid to boost sales.
Aldous says: “We don’t have the budgets of some of the other brands and so are looking to carry [the] visual elements [of the new look] over into our experiential activity as well as use advocates prominently to educate our drinkers and give us cut-through.”
Additionally, First Drinks is to expand its flavoured vodka ‘Full Moon Cocktail’ recipes to exploit a growing trend for making cocktails at home. Pernod Ricard is also looking to tap into this trend with the drinks manufacturer launching a new range this summer under its Jacob’s Creek brand.
