Allied Domecq Launches Stoli-Branded Digital Jukeboxes

Westport, CT -- Allied Domecq recently launched a new promotional campaign for Stolichnaya vodka using digital jukeboxes in bars and taverns. Under the banner of its trademark theme, "Best Chilled," Allied Domecq is running the jukeboxes with Stoli messaging to patrons of 730 establishments in seven select markets."Only Stoli can own the 'Best Chilled' slogan," says Ian Crystal, brand manager for Stolichnaya, which is owned and imported by Allied Domecq. "We have a ton of static on-premise P-O-P promoting the 'Best Chilled' slogan, and this gives us the opportunity to reinforce the message in a dynamic, memorable way."The vehicle for the campaign is a new digital jukebox available from Ecast Inc. of San Francisco, that downloads music from a broadband connection instead of playing it from an internal CD or other storage medium. "It's like a giant iPod," says Chris Scott, Ecast senior director of advertising business development. "You can currently download 220,000 different songs and 17,000 albums and new music is added every week."Ecast jukeboxes are currently in 4,200 bars in the United States. The company has strategically partnered with content providers, including major and independent record labels such as BMG, EMI Music, Sony Music and Universal Studios. A wide range of Spanish language music is also available from a few record labels.Because the music is downloaded from the Internet, different ad messages can be sent to different locations. "We can get down to zip code level," says Ecast's Scott. "Content can be customized to meet the needs of specific locations."The Stoli placement consists of a vertical ad that appears on the left hand side of the touchscreen from which the user selects the song he or she wants to hear. After asking users to verify that they are of legal drinking age, the copy reads, "Help us choose the next Stoli flavor." It then offers a choice of flavors from which the user can select one. After the user has made a selection, a branding ad encourages him or her to, "Go enjoy a nice Stoli and tonic." In addition to flavor choices, Stoli will also use the promotion to track the ages of the respondents.The Stoli promotion began in late August and will continue through October, when it will be re-evaluated. "Our initial target is small neighborhood bars," says Crystal. "We are currently in 730 of them in a total of seven markets. The criteria used to select the markets were total sales of flavored products, profitability and the opportunity to close some distribution gaps."If the promotion is successful, it will expand to large corporate chains like Applebee's, TGI Friday's, Chili's and others. "About 50% of our sales are on-premise," says Crystal, "and we have a corporate on-premise team that calls on major customers and is prepared to take the promotion to them."The promotion has been very successful so far in terms of generating responses. "Because songs are downloaded in real time, we can report results instantly," says Scott. "Our field salesforce and our distributors love it," adds Crystal. "It will be a while, however, before we can correlate responses with sales because the sales figures come in more slowly."The real time downloading capability also allows Ecast to price advertising on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis. The Stolichnaya brand is currently marketed by Allied Domecq, which also operates the Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin Robbins and Togo's restaurant chains and is currently in the process of being acquired. "I'm sorry that I'm not free to discuss any details of the acquisition," says Crystal. "The new owners, however, will have full access to our data and I'm pretty sure they will decide to continue the promotion."

Allied Domecq Launches Stoli-Branded Digital Jukeboxes

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