Jameson has embarked upon a huge sampling campaign on the back of new advertising as it seeks to build market share over Christmas and the New Year.
The Irish whiskey brand is working with more than 200 bars in London and the south east in a bid to reach 30,000 consumers over the next three months.
Irish actors have been hired to conduct the sampling – each specially picked to personify the brand’s new tagline ‘easygoing Irish’ – serving a selection of new cocktails developed by Jameson’s new brand ambassador.
Ed McAvoy, a bartender previously with Lab and the Kingly Club, has created some unconventional twists on classic cocktails in a bid to win more drinkers from the 25-34-year-old category, compared to the typical drinker who is aged over 40, and move away from a perception of the brand as one simply drunk neat or over ice.
He has created ‘playful’ variants of classic cocktails including a Julep, containing marmalade, sweet sherry and orange bitters; a Whiskey Sour containing homemade rhubarb syrup; and a Manhattan, containing Lillet Rouge and sherry.
Sampling will move north to Liverpool and Manchester in the new year.
The move, which accompanies new advertising on the TV and in the cinema – which builds on the Jameson Cult Film Club, introduced earlier this year – comes after brand owner Pernod Ricard has decided to focus more actively on the on-trade to drive sales. |