Something’s Afoot On Islay
Glenmorangie Company
Issue 6 | July 2008
Agency
Story
Creative Team
Dave Mullen;Rebecca Wood
Production Team
Anderson Printers Glasgow
Other Credits
Laetitia Drexler – Senior Account Manager
Date
May 2007
Background
Creatively, Ardbeg has teased and enticed their Committee Members (40,000 evangelical members in over 100 countries worldwide) with anecdotes and tales from the island for the past eight years. With this campaign, Story wanted to let them know that something was indeed 'afoot' on Islay, opting to tingle their spines rather than press their funny bones. Made on the Scottish Isle of Islay, Ardbeg has seven other distilleries on its doorstep. To remain the Ultimate Islay malt the brand has to 'own' Islay in the minds of whisky fans, strategically beginning to name expressions topograpically and gradually take over the island. Near the reservoir that feeds the Ardbeg Distillery, there is a dark wooded place whose name in Gaelic means ‘shelter of the beast’. A new whisky was launched named after this spooky place
Idea
A 'Beastie' of a dram – 'Airgh Nam Beist' – was launched via a little book telling of a spoof scary legend. The short horror story was written as if it was penned by one of the Islanders in the year the whisky was made (1990). The whisky was positioned as 'the stiff drink' one would need after reading the tale and definitely before embarking on a trip to Islay. The bookmark acted as the order form. The book was deliberately mailed to drop on Halloween - the scariest night of the year!
Results
The distillery was overwhelmed with orders after a 69% response rate, with 24,788 bottles sold from the 36,000 mailing. The production/pack cost was 40p, meaning an ROI of 7645%, with the mailing pulling in £1,115,212 of revenue.
Target Audience
The Ardbeg Committee – 40,000 evangelical members in over 100 countries worldwide the company have been ‘maturing’ for the last 8 years.
Size
40,000 mailings
Our Thoughts
Another mailing from the best continuity/loyalty programme on earth. In a hugely competitive market they've taken a commodity product and created a brand so strong they simply have to tell customers about the latest line extension in order to sell it by the boatload. Well done to the agency and, just as importantly, to the client who has followed Lucille Ball's advice (Don't f*** with success) and resisted the temptation to ‘refresh the brand’. SH