January 17, 2006 January 17, 2006 NEW STYLE OF ADS IN US ABSOLUT VODKA CAMPAIGN
(USA Today) After 25 years and 1,500 versions of print ads built around the shape of its bottle, Absolut vodka is shelving the campaign that made it famous.
Absolut will spend $20 million on a new effort that starts today and includes its first TV ads as the brand battles slower growth and tougher competition for vodkas.
“We’re introducing the brand to a new generation of vodka drinkers,” says Tim Murphy, brand director. “Those in their late-20s have come of age in a noisy, chaotic, cluttered vodka category.”
The company is not walking away from its long-running, iconic advertising that plays on its bottle shape and has become part of popular culture, though Smiley acknowledges it has become a “little bit invisible in some ways to people.” “It would be crazy to retire that campaign,” he said. (Read more here)Dozens of new vodkas have flooded the market since 1981 when the playful Absolut campaign began. The ads combined cultural icons, landmarks and trends with the bottle. They set the standard for today’s high-style, image-oriented spirits advertising.
While Absolut pioneered premium spirits marketing, today’s drinkers increasingly have favored even higher-priced brands, such as Grey Goose and Belvedere.
Sales of those newer brands continue to soar despite a price premium of up to a 20%. Absolut still leads U.S. sales of imported vodkas with a 10% share, but growth is lagging behind the group. While sales of imported vodkas grew an estimated 8% in 2005, Absolut is estimated to be up just 2%, according to beverage research publication Impact’s 2005 annual spirits study.
Even as the market shifted and rivals began to advertise on TV, Absolut stuck with the print campaign. Among the earliest ads was a signature silkscreen by pop artist Andy Warhol with the message “Absolut Warhol.” A golf green shaped like an Absolut bottle was “Absolut 19th,” while “Absolut Miami” showed an art deco bottle.
The new campaign, by TBWA/Chiat/Day in New York, pushes the brand as “The Absolut Vodka” and continues to play with the name.
In the first TV ad, for instance, the clear, silver-topped Absolut bottle is the closing shot, after the late movie star Steve McQueen is labeled “The Absolute Man” and the Statue of Liberty is tagged “The Absolute Welcome.”
Also included are less obvious images aimed at younger viewers, such as CBGB as “The Absolute Rock Club” and a scene from the movie Office Space as “The Absolute Worst Case of the Mondays.” Music is a remix of Hey Mrs. by I Monster. A second TV commercial will follow later this year.
The ads “give new meaning to the word absolute and use different mediums that we haven’t used in the past,” says Matthias Aeppli, Absolut’s vice president of marketing. “TV has become more open and available to (spirits advertising). It’s important that we talk to a new generation in a new, updated way.”
