This month, Diageo Great Britain (GB) is launching an initiative entitled, ‘Perfect Easter, Perfect Choice’ to drive sales of the spirits category during this important period.  The activity aims to inspire shoppers to make the most of their Easter occasions through brand-led above the line investment and in-store cross category activation for the Grocery channel.

Linking spirits with the Easter long weekend can increase footfall into stores and drive incremental purchase. 90% of people plan to spend time with friends and family at home over Easter, highlighting an exciting sales opportunity for retailers.

The ‘Perfect Easter, Perfect Choice’ campaign will be activated across major Grocery outlets nationwide. Retailer specific activity will include a mechanic offering consumers the chance to win a £50 voucher when they buy any 1litre bottle of Baileys® Irish Cream Liqueur or Baileys Flavours, Gordon’s gin, Smirnoff vodka or Bell’s blended Scotch whisky, to directly incentivise spirits sales across the Easter period.

Front of store pallets highlighting the campaign will also feature in outlet and communication will be placed on trolleys across 380 stores. In addition, online activity will run for a week before Easter and TV media will feature in 80 stores. To drive shopper engagement outside stores and continuing the creative featured on fixtures and point of purchase, six sheet media will feature outside 200 stores nationwide.

Baileys, which features heavily in the campaign, is a key brand at this time of year and has its second largest sales spike, after Christmas, during the Easter period, bringing shoppers into outlets and driving footfall and sales for retailers. Last Easter Baileys recruited an incremental 260,000 households.

Laura Pearce, shopper marketing manager at Diageo GB, comments:  “Over Easter shoppers will be enjoying extra days off work and many will take the opportunity to spend more time socially with their friends and family.  As such, Easter is a key period for spirits sales and this year’s ‘Perfect Easter, Perfect Choice’ activity brings together category, retailer and brand investment to create occasionality and drive shoppers into stores. The campaign offers added value and will drive awareness and excitement around spirits for the Easter occasion. As a result, we expect to see added sales uplift across the brands involved.”

March 2010