In the Drink at IDV
Seven and a half years of building brands in the wines and spirits industry with International Distillers & Vintners (IDV) and the opportunity to create some great advertising and promotional activity.
It started with Hennessy Cognac, liaising with the brand owners in France,developing some premium press advertising and building distribution in both the off- and on-trade sectors.
Then I moved up to be brand manager for one of the larger brands in the company at the time, Le Piat d’Or. Derided by the wine press, it was Britain’s best selling wine brand at the time. I created a new TV campaign, built the retail presence significantly and won salesforce support, restoring growth to a brand that had slipped a little previously.
From there I was promoted to Marketing Manager for a group of brands that included Le Piat d’Or, Croft Original sherry and Cockspur Golden Rum, again working with international brand owners as their UK distributor. Despite a product recall and a price rise, Croft Original was taken to the Christmas brand leader spot for its category for the first time.
After that I re-energised the company’s largest brand Smirnoff vodka, reversing a significant decline and restoring growth. A new advertising direction was launched and the marketing budget negotiated to higher level in excess of £10m.
This was followed by a further promotion to Marketing Controller and a new focus on development brands:
- re-positioning international brands such as DiSaronno Amaretto (+88% sales growth over three years);
- launching new variants of established brands such as Bombay Sapphire gin and its iconic blue bottle;
- acquiring distribution rights and re-positioning tired brands, such as Drambuie (reversed six-year decline into 18% growth);
- test-marketing and launching new brands, such as Sheridan’s Liqueur.
In addition I headed up a major project focussed on forecasting accuracy and reducing working capital. It saved the company over £1m in the first year after implementation.
See samples of advertising across all brands available for download.
