Allied Domecq Serves Up Sexy Canadian Club Promos

Westport, Conn. -- Giving a shot of sex appeal to the stuffy image of whisky, Allied Domecq served up back-to-back promotions for its Canadian Club brand under the "Can You Handle A Whisky Drinking Woman?" campaign. The promotions, which ran in September 2001 and March 2002, gave consumers a chance to play a hand of poker against actress Tia Carrere and a game of 8-ball against women's pool champion Jeanette Lee, a.k.a. The Black Widow. Both women appeared on P-O-P materials including slick in-store standees."It's part of an overall integrated marketing campaign to re-energize Canadian Club and the whisky category. Put some energy back into it. Make it social. Make it more fun," says Mike Harris, Canadian Club brand manager for Allied Domecq Spirits & Wine North America. "The brand is more social than what the old whisky value is."Harris says the major challenge is to come up with an idea that is different from every other brand and then integrate it into the marketing mix. "The brand is always hero in our strategy for P-O-P," Harris says, but it's important to communicate the offer and capture the promotion as well. "There are multiple messages, and trying to give them enough space and being able to capture each one is a challenge," he adds.Carrere and Lee are featured prominently on four-color, corrugated standees. "Both women speak the 'attitude' of Canadian Club. They're ready to take the challenge and are beautiful women," Harris says.Carrere appears on 900 36-inch-wide by 66-inch-high standees with tearpads touting the poker challenge. The sweepstakes offers consumers the chance to win $500,000 in a hand of poker against Carrere on a New Orleans riverboat. The contest runs from March until May with the actual poker standoff occurring in August. Supporting P-O-P includes 850 posters. 686 banners, 3,875 case cards with tear pads, 7,000 shelf talkers, 22,325 table tents and 19,000 bottle neckers. All the P-O-P was designed by The A-Team of New York and produced by Vertis Inc., Chicago.The brand also hosts poker games at various on-premise accounts. Canadian Club t-shirts, playing cards and samples of the whisky are given away.The Canadian Club 8-ball tournament ran from September 2001 through March. Harris says 11,000 players participated in the tournament, which was narrowed down to about 20 players for a national showdown in Las Vegas with Lee. It was primarily an on-premise promotion at bars and restaurants with some off-premise P-O-P displaying sweepstakes information, Harris adds. Prizes were given to multiple winners of every level of the tournament.P-O-P included 940 24-inch-wide by 66-inch-high standees, 4,320 posters, 38,750 table tents, 2,475 shelf talkers, 1,505 case cards with tear pads and 949 banners. Canadian Club ran a 9-ball tournament with Lee prior to this challenge that Harris says was "successful in volume increase and promotion." The A-Team designed the P-O-P while Matrix Group, Westwood, N.J., produced the standee. Vertis Inc. produced the banners and Blinker Displays, East Orange, N.J., produced the remainder of the P-O-P.Harris says Canadian Club chose pool because it's an on-premise sport that fits Canadian Club's target demographic, and poker because it's a sport that could help change the popular perception of whisky. "The target demographic is a white suburban male and a wide range of ages from the legal drinking age of 21 all the way up."

Allied Domecq Serves Up Sexy Canadian Club Promos

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