Whisky's popularity in Asia is historic, yet there are giants on the market which is difficult to match. Introducing a new player is therefore tricky and requires to generate a momentum to make a name for itself.
🔍 Background Destination Beverage has been a beverage importer and supplier in Singapore since 2013. Specialising in foreign brands, the start-up is also the agent for 11 brands, meaning that they have exclusive distribution and a mission of brand development on the Singapore market.
Destination Beverage became the agent for the rye whiskey brand WhistlePig mid-2019. Historically, the company has worked with syrups, liqueurs, and rum brands, so even thought there was distribution of whisky before, developing a whisky brand was new.
Recent on the Singaporean market and a very premium product, it was set that the goal was not volume but quality perception, aiming at being listed in the most reputed outlets in Singapore.
Usually, brand videos for spirits feature a reputed bartender or their own brand ambassador, to do a cocktail demonstration using the products. The stress is put on aesthetics to represent the brand positioning.
🧭 Problem Definition
What kind of marketing tactic can I use to get the market aware of the presence of a new kid in town? The media chosen has to reach as many people of the industry, and convey the positioning quickly and consistently.
📝 Contingencies Budget. Singapore is not a strategic market of the brand (yet), so whatever was deployed could not be too costly. Moreover, premium whisky is a slow moving product, so the return on investment would be too "far".
Timing. In november, a lot of the whisky and recently rum brands, launch their Old-Fashioned week campaigns. In other words, in order to prove the relevance of WhistlePig, it would be ideal for it to align and "be in the picture".
Satured content and relevant outreach. It is no secret that content is king in this day and age. In average, the Facebook group gathering the F&B stakeholders of Singapore, has 10 posts a day. Making sure that the maketing campaign reaches the right people is tough in this dynamic industry. Even by releasing content during the same timing as other brands, it would not guarantee solid lead generation.
🗺️ Solution Given the timing and budget, I quickly removed the idea of a product launch event. A video campaign fitted more the contingencies and the objectives of maximum awareness.
Beginning of September, we started a sales prospection, introducing the brands to the major bars in Singapore. This enabled us to have a proper understanding of the reception of the products, the "room" for a new whisky in the outlets, and also plan the campaign. In parallel, I presented the market research as well as my idea for the content. Changing from the traditional format of bartender interview, or bartender preparing a cocktail, we asked 4 reputed bartenders to do a Vogue "73-Questions"- type of interview, while preparing an Old-Fashioned with the WhistlePig rye whisky. The value for the outlets is that they could indirectly promote their outlets, teasing the viewers virtually with a shot of what they could experience if they were to go to their bars. Additionally, the 4 chosen outlets were from different categories (hotel bar, steakhouse restaurant, rooftop lounge and top 50 cocktail bar), providing a diversity of potential usage. Furthermore, the interviewees being the lead in the videos, they would be more aggreeable to commit to the content, and eager to share on social media.
All of the videos are available on Destination Beverage's Youtube Channel.
✅ Assessment
With a schedule of releasing a video every week of November, we accumulated about 3,000 views (data from Facebook) without any paid ad. This definitey created a momentum and brought traffic on our social media pages.
It remains complicated to directly associate our sales or our listings with the videos of course. Yet it remains a solid branding exercise and was definitely a lead generator - requests coming in to set up tastings sessions.