Pernod Ricard launches personalisation tool to drive gifting sales

The “Your Signature Spirit” portal, created by Cubo, coincides with Father’s Day next month (15 June), Pernod Ricard’s strongest sales period for its whiskies after Christmas.

Consumers can personalise labels for its Chivas Regal 12-year-old, The Glenlivet 12 year-old and Aberlour 10 year-old brands with a message via the site, which is then delivered for free within 10 working days.

The portal will shut down later this summer (15 August). However, Pernod Ricard plans to revive it soon after to capitalise on Christmas sales. Insights on the most popular gifting occasions on the service will be assessed in the intervening months, which could lead to additional sprit brands and categories added to the service.

It is Pernod Ricard’s first personalisation push for its spirits brands and attempts to exploit a predicted sales lift over the coming weeks. Spirit sales over Father’s Day last year jumped 6.5 per cent, according to Nielsen, a significant increase on the 1.6 per cent rise the previous year.

Dan Reuby, customer marketing director at Pernod Ricard UK says the launch is a cost-effective way to open up new sales opportunities by being more targeted. 

Reuby adds: “Father’s Day for the whiskey category is the biggest sales opportunity outside of Christmas, meaning we’ve had to come up with a way of making our brands more compelling to customers around the gifting opportunity.

“We’ll be closely evaluating how will the site performs but its intention to broaden the products on offer in the future, particularly around our dark spirits brands.”

The launch comes as Pernod Ricard channels more of its media spend through cheaper but what it says are cheaper digital promotions. The strategy appeared to pay off in Europe in the brand’s latest quarter where sales jumped 8 per cent year-on-year.