Roku Gin | Consumer Brand Experience Platform

Listen to article

Background

Background

The House of Suntory was known for its premium whisky portfolio, but unknown as a gin maker. In order to grab its share of the growing gin market Suntory developed a gin which respects the its Japanese provenance.

The Challenge

Create a tasting & education programme to launch the brand, and a creative strategy to bring the brand to life in events, in the on trade and global travel retail channel.

Insight

In a saturated gin market we knew we needed to find a point of difference from which to build the creative strategy from. With growing respect and intrigue by consumers of Japanese culture, approach to crafting fine whiskies and precision bartendering we knew that harnessing the Japanese provenance would be important to gain differentiation and a wealth of authentic storytelling.

The Wonder

We harnessed the product truth of ‘shun’ and the Japanese philosophy of ‘omotenashi’ - the way in which Japanese hosts pay attention to detail and the anticipate their guests' needs – to develop a tasting ritual which respects the liquid, the drinker and the host and elevates the drinking experience. This philosophy was the guiding principle for every part the tasting experience – from the simple serving ritual, to a brand ambassador tasting, to a full immersive educational experience.

Our creative approach was inspired by the beautiful detail on the bottle. Balancing the detail of the botanicals through illustration with the simplicity of washi paper and bamboo allowed us to build brand assets that we authentic, premium and disruptive.

We developed a key visual, tasting materials, a brand ambassador kit and full retail environments as well as a launch film and global toolkits to allow local markets to adapt the assets for local launch.

Key Visual | Creative Storytelling | Flexible Education Platform | On Trade Experiential, Brand Ambassador Toolkit | Brand Video, On Trade, POS and Toolkit

Woo-Hoo!

‘Most successful product launch for Beam Suntory.’