ABSOLUT(ely) fabulous!
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I went to the ABSOLUT ICEBAR in London last night and what an experience! One piece of advice – make sure you wear big woolly socks if you don’t want to freeze! It’s a bit pricey to get in but definitely worth it! The Ice Bar opened a few years ago and has been a real success – a premium bar sponsored by a trendy and innovative brand to create a once in life-time experience.
Believe it or not, ABSOLUT was introduced in 1879 in Sweden and is the third largest brands of alcoholic spirits after Bacardi and Smirnoff, marketed in 126 countries. Much of ABSOLUT’s fame is down to its clever marketing. The distinctive bottle is rather old-fashioned, some would even say medicine-like, while the brand name and art-work on the bottle is trendy and modern – I simply love this combination!
The versatile brand name has also allowed versatile, ‘think global, act local’, advertisements, and with more than 1500 ads, the campaign is the longest running ever. Let’s take a look at a few examples: ABSOLUT London, ABSOLUT Naples, ABSOLUT Paris but to name a few. In addition, ABSOLUT was one of the first consumer brands to embrace gay advertising, reaching an important segment of the market. In fact, very few brands have achieved this without offending gay or straight communities.
What should ABSOLUT do next?
It’s often difficult when launching an extremely successful campaign do find a good follow-up. For instance, the 2006 French Connection Campaign was heavily criticised.
Firstly, I think that they should try to engage and reach their community via the www. For instance, I particularly liked the different cocktails recipes, where the site’s visitors can rank their favourite drink.
I think that ABSOLUT were very clever by getting the consumer to design adverts for other consumers via their ABSOLUT LOMO contest. I also like the way they cleverly used the word contest rather than competition. The mission: to shoot one or a series of images capturing the spirit of ABSOLUT. Check out the ABSOLUT website for further details.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Lolly on 04/01/2007 at 5:30 pm, and is filed under Advertising and Communication, Branding & Packaging. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 5 years ago
Hey,
Sounds like you had an awesome night! This is sort of a coincidence… One of my MBA projects was on Grey Goose, a super-premium vodka here in the US. Grey Goose is not in Europe, but it’s made in France, believe it or not… of course, it’s all part of the strategy, the importance of the French roots in distilled drink (cognac) and luxury. Grey Goose, when it was launched in 1997, was THE most expensive vodka on the market, something like 250% premium over Smirnoff which was 3rd – Absolut was 2nd. Their marketing strategy, largely buzz marketing, which was something new at the time, was highly successful and made the Grey Goose vodka the TOP, super-premium vodka on the market. Essentially, Grey Goose had to create the super-premium category to be able to compete with the premium brands at the time, Absolut and Smirnoff which were much bigger than Grey Goose. Very clever! Absolut may have an opportunity to do something exciting and new to keep their “cool” and premium image going. As you said, the net might suit them well to start something.
Have a good weekend!
about 5 years ago
Nice outfit dude !
Meanwhile in kool Kings Cross, I had some weird zouk-socca dancing @ the Big chill house…
Sounds like London was dead kkkoooolll last night.
Elise
about 5 years ago
wait a minute… you’re from Lyon?!! ahahaha such a small small world!
I told you before that I worked for Publicis here in Asia? It was fun while it lasted.
Anyway… you’re from Lyon?! So close to Bourgogne!
about 5 years ago
Katia,
That’s interesting because I have never heard of Grey Goose: the brand name doesn’t sound French at all either!