The Famous Grouse - The Marketing Society

6 | Global Marketing | The Famous Grouse | Celebrating 30 years of global brand buildingRoyal Burgh Charter to Perth by King William the Lionin 1210. It was agreed that the red grouse is a fittingsymbol of Perthshire and so the sculpture was giftedto the people of Perth.All around the worldOver 22 markets, accounting for over 80% of TheFamous Grouse sales, adopted the campaign, makingit the single most successful campaign the companyhas rolled out to date. Three markets have beenchosen for this case study to illustrate how they eachchose to convey the message that The Famous Grouseis proud to have spent 30 years at the top of thewhisky league.RussiaThe team in Russia enthusiastically embraced alldifferent aspects of the campaign.• The website www. famous30.ru was the main hubof activity, with competitions and games forconsumers to play.• Facebook was used to reach the core targetaudience of trendsetting 30-year-olds and attractedover 3,000 members. The Facebook accountfeatured reports from events and links topromotional activities on the website, helping tocreate a strong buzz.• With the slogan ‘Let’s celebrate together’ ringingloud and clear, The Famous Bar promotion allied towww.famous30.ru was launched to help choosethe best bars in Moscow and St. Petersburg.Bloggers, photographers and bagpipers wererecruited to get the celebrations started.• Bottle neck-hangers were placed in all stores,inviting people to visit the website.• Limited edition 30-year-old blended malt andTimorous Beasties gift tins were developed toprovide another PR news-hook.• Famous Dinners were held for VIPs and mediageneratingpress coverage appeared in glossiessuch as Playboy, Medved, and My Way, whilepress trips to Scotland resulted in double-pagespreads published in a range of high profilemagazines, including Transaero-Imperial and Menu.• The Famous Grouse also sponsored a range ofevents, including tastings and a concert by iconicScots rockers Nazareth, as well as ‘Famous’dinners in Volgograd and Rostov.Hitting the right note with consumers• Brand tracking showed that the PR activity had ahigh level of cut through, with around a quarter of(26%) people interviewed claiming to have seenarticles about The Famous Grouse.• Visitor numbers to the campaign websitefollowing the launch almost doubled.• The campaign reached over 10,000 consumerson Facebook, with an average of 3,150comments, which demonstrated the extentof audience engagement.

Celebrating 30 years of global brand building | The Famous Grouse | Global Marketing | 7UK and GreeceBoth the UK and Greece chose to celebrate ‘Famousfor a reason’ with campaigns that integratedadvertising, on-trade, digital and PR activity. In whatwere tough, mature markets, the campaigns enabledthe teams to encourage brand engagement by givingconsumers and the on-trade the reasons why TheFamous Grouse was worth paying more for.• Famous 100 and The Grouse Trail in the UK was anopportunity to thank the on- trade for their supportin making The Famous Grouse, Scotland’s no.1selling whisky for 30 years. As a result of itssuccess it was rolled out for a second year andwon four industry awards.• Famous 75 Bars and The Grouse Trail inGreece offered opportunities to reach keyinfluencers as well as directly engage the30-year-old target audience through Facebookand targeting the on-trade.1. UK: The Famous 100 PubsTo celebrate the long-lasting success of the brandand bring to life the ‘Famous for a reason’ message,the UK launched a campaign to find 100 famousBritish pubs (Figures 4 and 5). As the British publichave a strong emotional relationship with their localpubs, and most pubs have a famous story, they askedpeople to nominate why their local should be madefamous. The best 100 would be celebrated in abespoke 16-page supplement in a nationalnewspaper, The Daily Telegraph.There were a number of objectives:• Bring to life the ‘Famous for a reason’ messagefor both consumer and trade.• Drive traffic to the microsite and secure a minimumof 400 nominations.• Get coverage throughout the country about thenominated pubs and their reason for being famous.• Switch drinkers to The Famous Grouse from otherblended whisky brands, retain these consumersand build emotional engagement via the ‘Famousfor a reason’ message.The campaign was a striking example of anintegrated campaign that engaged both the on-tradeand consumer audiences to generate coverage for thebrand. It achieved:• 43,000 hits.• 11,000 unique users.• 800 online nominations (double the target set).• Along with publicity from having a national mediapartner, the nominations also provided rich materialto create significant regional and online coverage,with 53 pieces appearing across the seven regions.Figure 4. Famous 100 Pubs campaignFigure 5. Famous 100 Pubs campaign

8 | Global Marketing | The Famous Grouse | Celebrating 30 years of global brand buildingThe quality of the nominations submitted wasexceptional. As a result, The Famous 100 becamea fantastic collection of renowned pubs that trulystood-out from the crowd. The 16-page supplementincluded inns, pubs and hotels of all shapes andsizes. Their reasons for being famous ranged froma pub in a cave, another with a boxing ring to onethat leans further than the leaning tower of Pisa(see ‘Feedback from publicans’).Feedback from publicansLeila Maia (Barley Mow pub)“We are so proud to be in the ‘Famous Top 100’. Thetiming of the award was fantastic as we had just hada refurbishment so our guests had seen the amountof work that went into it. They have also been talkingabout it and bringing the supplement in to show us.”Stuart Wraith (Fools Nook)“The Famous Grouse Famous 100 is a wonderfulidea, celebrating the interesting histories of thesetypically British institutions. Not only highlighting ourheritage but finding out about others was fantastic.”The results showed that the objectives were metand exceeded:• It brought the slogan ‘Famous for a reason’ to lifefor consumers while supporting key outlets.• The brand could capitalise on the genuine fame itenjoyed from ‘Famous for a reason’.• Buy-in by the trade and semi-permanent/permanent branding provided strong switchingmessages at point-of-purchase.Figure 6. The Drovers Arms: Basford illustration• The on-trade outlets received ‘free’ publicity asa result of being in the Famous 500.• This will grow each year as more pubs are inductedto The Famous Grouse ‘Hall of Fame’ annually.The Grouse TrailThe UK Grouse Trail was launched in April 2011 viaFacebook to identify the 30 favourite pubs from TheFamous 100. The Famous Grouse then recruitedScottish artist Johanna Basford to create anillustration representing each of the favourite 30pubs. These were drawn onto the Grouse replica,which then toured the UK.The campaign peaked with the release of the 30designs for each of the famous pubs (Figure 6). Tomaximise exposure, two-dimensional versions of thedesigns were shared individually via Facebook andTwitter, generating a lot of excitement and commentsfrom fans. Regionalised press releases were issuedannouncing the 30 pubs across the UK that wouldreceive a bespoke Johanna Basford illustration.

Celebrating 30 years of global brand building | The Famous Grouse | Global Marketing | 92. GreeceThe Greek team chose to celebrate ‘Famous for areason’ by developing their own 360° campaignwhich integrated event sponsorship, on-trade, digitaland PR activity.The Grouse TrailThe Grouse Trail kicked off the 30-year celebrationsin Greece with the commissioning of threecontemporary designers to decorate The Grousereplicas, which were put on display at a range ofevents throughout the city. The Grouse statues wereexhibited at The Ermis Awards (the biggest eventrewarding creativity in the communications industry)in front of 1,500 delegates, including trendsetters andopinion formers in media, advertising and marketing.They also presented the 125 award winners withpersonalised bottles put on display, reinforcing the“Famous for a reason” message. Branding in sucha special and contemporary way ensured that TheFamous Grouse “owned the event” and createda talking point.The statues were then put on display at a range offunctions by the team throughout the campaign. Togenerate further awareness and publicity around thecampaign, two short films were uploaded to YouTubetelling the story of The Grouse Trail.The Famous 75 BarsThe second major part of the campaign was TheFamous 75 Bars. In association with leading lifestylepublication Athens Voice, a digital campaign wascreated in which readers could celebrate and thenvote for their favourite bars in Greece.Athens Voice was celebrating reaching 50,000Facebook friends and so the campaign kicked off withtwo parties (one in Athens and one in Salonica)which the publication hosted and sponsored by TheFamous Grouse. As an added twist and to mark TheFamous Grouse’s 30-years celebration, anyone bornin 1980 could join the party for free. More than 2,500people attended the parties and had the chance tosample The Famous Grouse drinks.The next stage involved asking Athen’s Voice readersto nominate which bars they felt deserved to bemade “famous”. Readers could nominate and leavecomments about their favourite bar through aninteractive Facebook application. To incentivisereaders, competitions ran throughout the campaign.The result was a 10-page feature in Athen’s Voicedetailing the Top 75 Famous Bars in Athens.

10 | Global Marketing | The Famous Grouse | Celebrating 30 years of global brand buildingCause for celebrationKeeping anything going for thirty years these days isa major triumph. But to maintain a place atnumber one in the highly-competitive whisky industryis an extraordinary achievement. The Famous Grousemade the most of that feat from August 2010 toDecember 2011 worldwide with an impressive volleyof events, promotions and campaigns, all gearedtowards explaining why the brand is ‘Famous for areason’ (Figure 7). Extra spice was provided with ahearty cocktail of replica birds, social media andgreat bars that were ‘Famous for a reason’.The campaign delivered on all theoriginal objectives:• Clearly convey the No.1 whisky in Scotlandmessage in the warm and witty ‘Grouse’tone of voice.• Communicate the ‘Famous for a reason’ message.• Increase reach and saliency among currentconsumers and reassure light buyers by givingthem a reason to believe.• To provide all markets with a clear 360°campaign that easily developed and deliveredthese objectives.Most importantly, sales increased and grew thebrand. Overall, despite the blended Scotch marketonly growing at an average of 1%, the brand grew by+8.31% between 2010/11 to 2011/12.Figure 7. ‘Famous for a reason’ campaignAll images appearing in this case study are reproduced by permission of Edrington.

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MARKETING EXCELLENCE“ A treasure trove of case study examples covering the whole waterfront, from launching new brandsto revitalising, sustaining and extending established ones, and from insights to advertising and sustainability.Whatever your business, they should make you proud to be a marketer, shake up your thinking and inspireyou to go the extra mile.”Professor Patrick Barwise, London Business School, Chairman of Which?“ These cases are a great source to stimulate your thinking. Some will stimulate new thoughts; some willunlock ideas from the back of your memory. All of them however are great fuel for growth.”Keith Weed, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer, UnileverPublished in 2013, this series of award-winning case studies features some of the world’s leading brands:AvivaBritish AirwaysDr PepperFairtrade FoundationFamous GrouseHotels.comJohn LewisMcDonald’sMcLarenNotcuttsO 2Sainsbury’sTo download further case studies or to purchase the book, Marketing Excellence 2,please visit www.marketingexcellence.org.uk or phone 020 8973 1700© Copyright The Marketing Society 2013. All rights reserved.This PDF edition is for the personal use of the member who may print from ita single copy. It may not be reproduced, posted on intranets, extranets or the internet, e-mailed, archived or shared electronically either withinthe member’s organisation or externally without express written permission from The Marketing Society. To share this PDF with colleaguesat the same site or across multiple sites within an organisation by email or via an electronic network please contact The Marketing Society topurchase an appropriate license.in association withsponsored by