First drinks announces Christmas plans

First Drinks, a leading UK supplier of premium spirits, is investing heavily in its portfolio of brands to drive sales in the run up to Christmas. The company will be putting over £6m into brand advertising and injecting further spend into a series of sponsorship deals and promotional activities.

“Christmas is a key trading period and competition for share of wallet will be fiercer than ever,” comments Katie Rawll, marketing director at First Drinks. “We have the best balanced portfolio of premium brands in the industry and always look at innovative ways to build on their success. By continuing to financially boost our big brands, we have seen exceptional growth in a number of categories this year and we are very confident about delivering a profitable Christmas across the trade.”

In brief:

• Russian vodka brand, Russian Standard, will be First Drinks’  biggest spender with a £3m Sky TV sponsorship, TV and cinema advertising campaign  
• Disaronno,  the non-cream liqueur which has seen exceptional growth in  2009, will be back on TV with a £2m TV advertising campaign  
• The single malt Scotch whisky, Glenfiddich, has a  heavyweight integrated Christmas communications campaign worth over £1m with advertising in top end consumer titles and at POS, plus online activity.  
• New into the First Drinks’ portfolio and straight into Christmas is Tia Maria, the  number one non-cream liqueur, with a £1m TV advertising campaign. The last time Tia Maria has advertised on TV in the UK was in 2003.

“2010 is set to be another exciting year for the business. As well as a number of heavyweight marketing programmes, we will be rolling out some major category initiatives to really lead the industry with an innovative approach to help drive sales of premium spirits across both the on and off-trade” concludes Rawll.

December 09

1 December 2009 - Felicity Murray