Q&A with Jim Coates, head of brand for Glayva

The focus of the campaign strategy is to promote the message ‘Glayva. The Best Liqueur In The World’ through a humorous drinks amnesty. This will be brought to life by digital marketing, creative media partnerships, sampling in select cities and discounts in all major supermarkets. Our aim is to target existing customers to strengthen our ‘best liqueur in the world’ reputation as well as to recruit new drinkers who may never have tried our brand or who may currently be choosing one of our competitors.

Which media formats will the campaign roll out across?

The campaign will launch with a national partnership with Metro and will then roll out in regional newspapers across the UK, including the likes of the Evening Standard, the Birmingham Mail and The Herald in Scotland. All print media will feature voucher discounts with some supporting prizes of product and city break trips. These will be supported by radio campaigns on BRMB, Real Radio and Smooth Radio. A key part of the drinks amnesty will also be online – in particular we will be concentrating on Facebook and YouTube.

What is the thinking behind the 'Save our Drinks Cabinets' campaign?

We’ve planned a campaign for Glayva that’s fresh, imaginative and gets across the ‘best in the world’ message in an original way. We commissioned a survey of 3000 people across and we found out plenty about their drinks cabinets that allowed us to have a little fun. 16% of people we spoke with had never cleaned their cabinet out at all. Nearly 50% hadn’t for over 4 years or more and almost 80% of these forgotten bottles were almost full. So, the amnesty means that we can give people an incentive to show their cabinets a little bit of love and treat it to the best.

Alongside traditional media, the campaign features a great deal of social media activity - why has suited Glayva and its consumers?

We’re putting more weight behind the brand than ever before and by integrating social media properly with our traditional media, sampling and off-trade discounts, we’ll resonate with our existing drinkers as well as new, younger customers. It’s important that the brand is introduced to more 25-35 years olds – it’s where the future of Glayva lies – so it makes sense for social media to be central to the campaign. By using Facebook it means we can have two-way communication about the brand rather than just imparting information on them plus it allows us to provide them with an online experience that they can also share with their friends – much in the same way they would consume Glayva.

We're beginning to see brands turn their thoughts towards Christmas - with the economy being as it is currently, how successful a winter period would you predict for the alcohol sector?

Christmas is traditionally the busiest period for all spirits and liqueur brands and this year I don’t except it to be any different. People will still be looking for a good quality drink for entertaining friends or a perfect gift and as Glayva is the best, it fits the bill for both occasions.

The public sector is looking more to private sector brands to partner with marketing campaigns - is this strategy that you believe Glayva could benefit from?

Working in partnership is definitely a good way for brands to spread their budgets further and it certainly is not something we would rule out.