PDMA 2006 - Closing Keynote, How Diageo Competes to Win in the Beverage Alcohol Industry

Submitted by David Olson on Thu, 11/09/2006 - 12:19pm

Speaker: Debra Kelly-Ennis, Chief Marketing Officer with Diageo North America, with a special appearance by Captain Morgan

This final keynote address described some of the new product work being done at Diageo, a large beverage holding company for many well-known alcoholic brands worldwide. The speaker described some of their processes, showed a lot of commercials, and involved some live theater.

The talk was titled "Competing to Win: Asking Why and Why Not About Everything". The "Diageo Way of Building Brands" involves conducting 15,000 indepth interviews with users, and covers both new brands and new ways to communicate... while also promoting responsibility in alcoholic use.

Trends affecting their business:

  1. Interest in "affordable luxuries", among three segments: 18-29 year olds; aging boomers; and "influencers", people who influence others in matters of brand choice etc.
  2. Cultural exchange and globalization
  3. Interest in customization and variety

They have their dedicated innovation staff always asking "why not?" They conduct a global "search and spin" for new ideas. They draw on a panel of unusual experts, including chefs, mixologists, and events organizers, to help with new ideas.

Smirnoff -- Diageo's biggest brand, but also showing the biggest growth. They have added flavors which has spurred growth, but their base brand is also growing 12% per year

Crown Royal XR (Extra Rare) -- a very expensive bottle of Crown Royal ($150/$200 per bottle!!). She described an exclusive party hosted by P. Diddy in conjuction with Crown Royal XR.

Tanqueray Rangpur -- this is gin flavored by rangpur limes from India, and using a communications program called "Globe Probe" and an odd spokesman named Tony Sinclair.

Guinness Draught in a Bottle -- this product required technology to preserve the special Guinness taste in a bottled form. It used a "widget" surger, obtained from Japanese technology, which allows the beer to settle in ten seconds

Ready-to-Drink Cuervo Golden Margaritas -- what it says.

Smirnoff Tea and Parrot Bay Coconut Rum -- dubbed "progressive adult beverages" by the speaker

Ciroc Vodka -- made with "snap frost" grapes

Oronoco Rum -- made from "Brazilian mountain cane"

The last part of her talk focused not on new brands, but on new ways to communicate with customers. They focus on:

  • Creating richer experiences for users, by educating about their brands
  • Making their brands more relevant
  • Using new channels for "message saturation"

Examples were:

Tanqueray Gin -- using their spokesperson Tony Sinclair. Here's an example of one of his ads: Martini Man

Bailey's -- They began serving Bailey's at beauty shops, as a promotional idea. Here is a 3 minute video showing this.

Captain Morgan -- She described their Halloween promotion, Captain Your Halloween. If you click that link, and then click the "As Seen on TV" link at the upper right, you see the commercial she showed us, featuring cool costumes like a Deviled Egg, First-Class Male, Venetian Blind, Hold the Mustard, etc. At this point, the doors of the room flew open and Captain Morgan showed up. Here's a photo of him. And here's the man wearing the Hold the Mustard costume. And another of Captain Morgan. And finally here's a short video (about 3 MB) of him as he was leaving the room.

(He gave out a few costumes to people in the room, and somehow I was lucky enough to get a Deviled Egg one. Here I am with Bill Riggs, taken an hour or so later. Oh, the things I do for PDMA! :-) )

Red Stripe Beer -- She showed an odd and wacky commercial called "Creepy Foot Doctor".

Smirnoff Raw Tea -- For this, she showed a funny commercial called "Tea Partay", an upper-class rap video spoof. And there's a dedicated web site at www.teapartay.com.

Johnny Walker -- For this she showed a video called "Mighty Casey's Next at Bat".

The last three ads were all part of a "Social Responsibility" communication effort to promote responsible drinking. These were:

Crown Royal -- She showed a safe driving PR campaign involving Nascar drivers and "Safe Rides Home".

Captain Morgan -- A funny commercial called "Pizza Delivery".

Red Stripe Beer -- For this, she showed another funny commercial called "Moderation".