Sitting aboard the John Walker & Sons Voyager – a 187ft ocean-going 1920’s style yacht which has been sailing round Asia and Europe for the last year – it’s easy to see how Diageo could amass a £1,787m marketing spend in the last year.
Launched last September the Voyager was intended to introduce new consumers to the world of luxury Scotch whisky and drive growth in Scotch whisky exports, particularly in the super deluxe category, and follows in the footsteps of Diageo’s Johnnie Walker House brand embassies opening in Shanghai and Beijing in the last two years continuing the brands trend toward experiential marketing initiatives aimed at the high-end, super deluxe consumer.
Johnnie Walker's Voyager passes the Forth Road Bridge as it arrives at its final stop in Edinburgh“We’ve taken the learnings from our colleagues in Asia, and what we’ve found is these discerning luxury consumers really want an experience and to be honest we wouldn’t do it if there wasn’t a commercial return,” explained Elizabeth Finn, Diageo’s whisky category director, Western Europe.Speaking with The Drum aboard the Voyager, Finn commented: “Voyager isn’t just a ‘big statement’ or ‘flash thing to do’ and we certainly wouldn’t be doing it if it was only to make ourselves feel good. Yes, generating commercial return on something like this is different from an in-store promotion or traditional ad campaign…it was a big, big investment from our marketing budget but we are delighted with the return and we think we’ll continue to see capital.”
Johnnie Walker Blue Label brand ambassador David Gandy aboard the VoyagerIn a time of recession it seems a little jarring that Johnnie Walker remains so ostentatious in its marketing strategy but according to Finn “by 2020 there will be globally 400 million extra high net worth individuals so a lot of people are getting richer, and they’ll all be potential customers for us”. In discussing how to attract these potential customers Finn says: “What we’re really keen to do is to get people to experience the products because however much you advertise a brand to them in the end they don’t know whether they’re going to like it or not. For luxury consumers it’s even more important to get them to taste the products, and we want them to do so in the right environment. It’s less about selling them a lifestyle, more about reflecting the lifestyle they want onto them, mirroring back to them either a lifestyle they feel fits them or one they’d like to aspire too.” As well as celebrating the brand heritage of Johnnie Walker and enticing new high-end consumers Voyager marks the launch of another ‘aspirational’ Johnnie Walker product – Odyssey. Retailing for “around £750 per bottle” even Finn admits to being “surprised when we sold out in a couple of weeks” adding “I think it just shows the demand for really good premium whiskies”. Much like the liquid itself Johnnie Walker Odyssey’s branding is rooted in brand history coming straight from Alexander Walker’s own innovation, a decanter for ocean-going cruise liners which enables the bottle to stay upright even as the ship moves. Incorporating historical quirks such as this is “key to the whole mix” according to Finn who credits Odyssey’s success to “combining the most amazing tasting whisky with brand history and influences from Alexander Walker himself”.
The whisky and its packaging are based on influences direct from Alexander WalkerAs Japanese whiskies gain market share Finn addresses the new challenges it brings, commenting “there are some really good Japanese whiskies and I think they’ve been learning a lot and hats off to them, but I also think luxury consumers, especially new ones coming into the luxury segment are still looking for brands with history, heritage and provenance. And the provenance of Scotland is especially important to these consumers.”On how Diageo and Johnnie Walker hold onto their share in the market place Finn points towards innovation. “What we’re not looking to do is bring out new products every year as you can bring out too much, but if you don’t keep your product offering relevant and up-to-date then you will struggle.” One such way Johnnie Walker is staying up-to-date is engaging its audience on new platforms such as social media, something which Finn describes as “one of the biggest changes in marketing generally”. “What is very pertinent to this market is we really need to be engaging in a dialogue with consumers…fans now want to find out more information, research if what we’re saying is really true, uncover what whisky bloggers and celebrities think as well as they’re friends and other influential people and social media has become the ideal way to do that rather than traditional media," she adds. With the yacht docked in Leith Diageo is now moving forward with marketing plans into 2014 and beyond, in the next few months Finn reveals that there will be movement in the UK surrounding the Johnnie Walker Black and Red Label brands in the coming months, but keeps quiet on any plans to extend the Johnnie Walker House embassies into Western Europe only commenting that they are in “talks with Asia about what they have learnt and what we can take from them to create something of our own”.
