Category Update
Whiskey River: Properties Drink Up New Revenue From Spirits Segment
Additional Whiskey Brand Sponsorship Activity
: Brown spirits mean green to a growing number of properties.
Capitalizing on their growing popularity and seeking to promote new premium products, Jack Daniel’s, Jim Beam and other blended, bourbon and Canadian whiskey brands have signed a host of new sponsorships.
According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, whiskey sales revenues rose 4.3 percent to $5.3 billion in ’08, outpacing the 2.8 percent rise in overall spirits sales.
Among recent deals, Brown-Forman Corp. in January titled a Childress Howard Motorsports entry in the Rolex 24 at Daytona auto race on behalf of Gentleman Jack, the company’s high-end Jack Daniel’s line extension.
Brown-Forman may expand the relationship by sponsoring the team in other races in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series, according to Dave Stang, director of branded experiences and events for Jack Daniel’s.
It is probably not a coincidence the Grand Am series is presented by Gentleman Jack competitor Crown Royal Cask No. 16. In addition to that sponsorship, the Diageo North America, Inc. “ultra-premium” brand is expanding its involvement in the series by sponsoring a Penske Racing entry for the ’09 season. The brand titled the car in the Rolex 24 at Daytona and will serve as a cosponsor in the series’ 11 other races.
Outside of motorsports, Brown-Forman’s Canadian Mist is sponsoring the 40-city Bob & Tom Comedy All-Stars Tour, while the company’s Early Times whiskey earlier this month renewed a partnership with the American Bass Anglers fishing tour.
Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc.’s Jim Beam recently signed to sponsor Northern California’s Mavericks Surf Contest, and its Canadian Club brand late last year secured naming rights to a bar and restaurant at The Palace of Auburn Hills–home to the NBA Detroit Pistons.
Whiskey makers largely use sponsorship to accomplish one or more of five key objectives:
• Promote brands as lifestyle products
• Tout new line extensions
• Gain promotional platforms for on- and off-premise accounts
• Reach consumers at the point of consumption
• Promote responsible drinking practices
“Sponsorship provides a great business growth opportunity that our sales and distributor personnel can take to the grassroots level,” said Brian Gallagher, Jim Beam’s manager of sponsorship marketing.
Whiskey marketers have benefited from the relaxing of restrictions that some adult-focused properties had on partnering with spirits brands, including NASCAR’s lifting of a self-imposed ban in ’05. In January, the NBA rescinded its 18-year-old restriction on camera-visible signage for the spirits category.
According to the Beverage Information Group, Jack Daniel’s was the country’s best-selling whiskey brand in ’08, followed by Crown Royal, Jim Beam, Diageo’s Seagram’s 7 Crown and Constellation Brands, Inc.’s Black Velvet.
Beam Shows Its Maverick Side
After years of sponsoring surfing competitions in Australia and other countries, Jim Beam this year is partnering for the first time with a surf event in its home country.
The bourbon brand aligned with the event at the Mavericks surfing location–a half-mile off shore near Half Moon Bay, Calif., to support its Stuff Inside marketing campaign, which seeks to link the brand with individual character.
The social-media-focused campaign–which has its hub at TheStuffInside.com–features personalities and events that exemplify the attributes Jim Beam wants to be associated with such as individualistic, best-in-class, committed, etc.
Some of the relationships touted on the site include properties the brand currently sponsors including Robbie Gordon Motorsports’ NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team, country band Montgomery Gentry and nonprofit Operation Homefront.
Jim Beam was drawn to the Mavericks in part due to the unique nature of the event. The competition features 24 surfers who battle it out on 50-foot waves with only 24 hours notice. The event is expected to take place this month when big-wave conditions hit their prime.
“Mavericks is something out of the ordinary that celebrates the true passion that these guys have for surfing and the risks they are willing to take in competing,” Gallagher said.
Mavericks also provides access to the brand’s core audience of 21-to-29-year-old males, he added.
“This is one event that would specifically resonate with our target audience and deliver the message of having ‘the stuff inside.’ We are championing passion points so we can get young adults to consider Jim Beam, as we are supporting one of their favorite activities.”
One of the sponsorship’s benefits is the Jim Beam Jersey to be worn by the event’s reigning champion.
Jim Beam is activating at California retailers through 10,000 bottles with Mavericks-themed custom labels. The brand will make a donation for each special-edition bottle sold to the Save the Waves Coalition, with a cap of $5,000.
Jim Beam is in its fifth year titling Robby Gordon Motorsports. The bourbon uses the tie to build brand visibility and to drive store traffic through personal appearances and race car simulator visits.
The brand frequently cross-promotes sponsored properties. For example, last month it hosted the second annual Beam Bash at the Daytona 500 Sprint Cup race. The event featured a concert by Montgomery Gentry and served as a fundraiser for Operation Homefront, an organization that assists U.S. overseas military personnel and their families.
Jim Beam ended its sponsorships with Andretti Green Racing and Penske Racing’s IndyCar Series teams at the end of the ’08 season. “This year we just want to focus on Robby,” Gallagher said.
To determine success, Beam Global, a unit of Fortune Brands, Inc., examines year-over-year sales in markets where it has activated a sponsorship, said Gallagher, who evaluates proposals with the company’s knowledge and insights group.
Gentleman Jack Mulls Larger Motorsports Involvement
For its part, the double-filtered Gentleman Jack aligned with Childress Howard Motorsports to build visibility in front of upscale, college-educated consumers between the ages of 30 and 45.
“Gentleman Jack is aimed at more of a wine-and-cheese crowd versus a beer crowd,” Stang said, noting that Grand Am racing attracts a higher income motorsports fan than NASCAR or other circuits.
Brown-Forman was drawn specifically to the Rolex 24 race for two other reasons: The opportunity to build the brand in front of the televised race’s domestic and international viewers, and to gain a platform to promote responsible drinking.
“The opportunity to pace yourself and drink responsibly applies very well in this forum because it’s a 24-hour race,” Stang noted.
Brown-Forman put the deal together a month before the race and was not able to implement a full-scale activation program, Stang said. Instead, the company activated the partnership with on-site autograph sessions by Danica Patrick and other drivers who drove the Gentleman Jack car.
The sponsorship is the newest tie in Jack Daniel’s sponsorship portfolio, which also includes title of a Richard Childress Racing Sprint Cup team, as well as partnerships with Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Professional Bull Riders, and other properties. The brand uses the deals to establish an emotional connection to its targeted audience and develop brand loyalty, said Stang.
“If you support a particular sport, our research shows that people seem to align themselves with that particular product,” he said. “People know that it takes sponsorship dollars to support events, and they support the brands that support their lifestyles.”
The company leverages its Sprint Cup team and other properties with a mobile marketing program that provides a look at the process for making Jack Daniel’s.
Stang signs off on deals, after reviewing proposals with brand managers and sales personnel.
Sources
Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc., Tel: 847/948-8888
Brown-Forman Corp., Tel: 502/585-1100