As it turns 40, Baileys sets out plans to become ‘the new scotch’

As Baileys hits 40, the brand has set itself an ambitious task – to become an integral part of the female toast.

Baileys Fabulous Called

“It’s an iconic symbol between men to toast with Scotch,” says Anna MacDonald, marketing director of Baileys Western Europe. “We want to put Baileys at the heart of the female toast.”

Having launched the “Global Girls” TV ad on 19 November as part of the “Here’s To Us” campaign, the brand is using their anniversary on 26 November to look back at their roots and history, which is closely focused on women.

“The first ever brand ad showed a woman ordering a Baileys, which was quite bold for the time,” MacDonald says.

“For a while we’ve been targeting both women and men, and while we still welcome everyone to buy our product it does help creative development to have a clear target,”

While the initial brand ads targeted at women featured a strong alpha-female character, MacDonald says the new campaign invites women to celebrate the importance of relationships.

She says the brand has put the “consumption occasion” into the heart of the ad, a focus that will translate into two digital films that are being developed to support the TV spot and outdoor and print ads.

However, MacDonald says she sees the campaign evolving to show various ways women support and inspire each other, not just on a night out.

The company is spending approximately £6m on media this year, which is slightly higher than last year in an attempt to maximize reach.

Chocolat Luxe, the latest variant on the master brand, provided a luxury product which MacDonald says added value and brought new customers to the brand.

“We’ve designed a special gold bottle for Christmas and had a great reception to it,” she says. “There’s definitely a high aesthetic appeal to women, so with them as our creative focus we took the iconic black bottle and used a beautiful design to differentiate it and add luxury cues.”

As far as the steady release of new products, MacDonald says the reception is always positive.

“Baileys behaves more like chocolate or ice cream in terms of the experience customers enjoy,” she says, suggesting this may be the reason consumers are open to new flavours.

Diageo’s latest results show that while the brand’s volume numbers are down, they seem to be selling at a higher price.

Although MacDonald says no new products are on the horizon, the brand will continue to support Chocolat Luxe and the other flavours of the portfolio throughout the Christmas period and into next year.

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