The Campaign

125 years ago on Christmas Day, William Grant set out to fulfil his dream of creating the ‘best dram in the valley’ and Glenfiddich was born. A century later, a unique single cask of whisky was distilled by his 5th and 6th generation descendants and selected exactly 25 years later on Christmas Day 2012 to mark Glenfiddich’s 125 years of pioneering spirit – Glenfiddich Anniversary Vintage with only 286 bottles released globally, one of the most special Glenfiddich expressions made. With only 20 bottles available in Southeast Asia, Glenfiddich was keen to conduct a launch of the special reserve in key markets amongst targeted media and HNWIs through an experiential event rolled out in each market to enhance relationship development with key stakeholders. With that, “Love, Lineages and Legacies” was born with a whisky-pairing dinner that culminated to a charity auction where various founding families across Southeast Asia was invited for an evening of familial heritage tales, alongside the Grant family’s legacy to immortalise. Limited bottles of the Anniversary Vintage were auctioned off with proceeds going to charity. The campaign trail-blazed through 4 cities (Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok, and Manila) before concluding with a finale in Singapore. The campaign series is the quintessential bridge to transition from the pioneering spirit essence of Glenfiddich to elevating the communication of family-owned heritage. It is and remains the largest regional activation series by the company and has yielded an ROI of over 300% with PR comprising of almost half of the returns garnered.

The Brief

Business Goals: • Drive incremental volume, revenue and profit across Glenfiddich’s portfolio through a holistic communications plan that can amplify the premium credentials of Glenfiddich • To sell out all allocation of Anniversary Vintage immediately at each launch event, across all executed markets Communications Goals: • Generate regional brand name awareness and media visibility of Glenfiddich’s family heritage that defines the dedication that goes into their liquid, positioning as unique amongst single malts • Initiate and maintain brand’s position as premium destination for single malt Scotch whisky category – thereby enhancing value growth trajectory

Results

Business: • Drive incremental volume, revenue and profit across Glenfiddich portfolio with 86 bottles worth SGD 125,678 sold at the Singapore finale • Significant volume of unique trials of Glenfiddich core variants with 1,760 unique trials throughout series • At least 240 bids were launched with a total of 110 unique bids for 20 rare expressions; all 20 were auctioned off for at least twice their values and total auction revenue generated was SGD 109,316.60 Communications: • 440 guests including UHNWIs and stakeholders attended the 5 dinners held in 5 cities, while 37 number of targeted media attended • 32, 944,518 media impressions garnered across 5 markets to date • Total of 78 pieces of coverage arising from events clipped, including top-tier print and online publications and social media posts across 5 markets to date • Total returns on investment aggregated at 313.63% with PR taking up 48.3528% of it

Execution

Focusing on a holistic sensory experience, a bespoke degustation dinner menu was co-developed by Celebrity Chefs and Glenfiddich Regional Brand Ambassador. Through a carefully curated guest list of 60 per city, including selected media targets, guests were taken through an experiential whisky and culinary feast where they had the opportunity to learn more about the various core expressions, as well as the ultra-rare Anniversary Vintage. Guests were also encouraged to submit bids for the Anniversary Vintage in support of Oxfam Typhoon Haiyan and Singapore Red Cross Society. Basing story angles around the dinner event with focus on pioneering families and the Grant family history, we were able to successfully convey strong brand messaging around Glenfiddich and its heritage without running into issues around overt alcohol promotion in the dark markets.

The Situation

With the client’s long-term premiumisation strategy driven by PR; this regional flagship campaign was expected to be the catalyst Glenfiddich needed to drive incremental sales growth through significant PR and stakeholder relations forged. Given that the premium alcohol market in Asia is booming where consumption of premium whisky has outpaced general spirits market, as well as the overall whisky category, expectations for this campaign to excel was high amidst intense competition. Furthermore, with Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia as dark markets for alcohol promotion, it was imperative that PR helps bridge all communications expectations through a sound strategy.

The Strategy

“Love, Lineages and Legacies” was born to illustrate the journey of humble beginnings from the triumphant. Working with stories of tenacious pioneers hail their tales of hard work, survival trials and tribulations, leading up to the pinnacle of illustrious careers and ultimately handing over the motivation of their pioneering spirit to their next generation. Introducing the various founding families from across Southeast Asia, the campaign endeavours to tell tales of their heritage and share them alongside the Grant family’s legacy to immortalise the “Love, Lineages and Legacies” campaign. With this strategy, the following was executed: 1. Provides a strong synergy that embodies both the prior and current brand propositions – “Pioneering Spirit” and “Family Heritage” respectively, allowing a direct transition from the old to the new. 2. The romanticism of 125 years of family-owned history provides a strong proposition for Glenfiddich to provide a compelling emotional benefit to the consumer