A Scottish whisky maker is hoping to enjoy the sweet taste of national success next month with the UK launch of its latest drink, Ginger Grouse.
Famous Grouse launched its alcoholic fizzy drink, which combines Ginger Ale and whisky, in Scotland in October 2012.
The drink aims to attract younger people to try blended whisky and is based on a popular tipple that Famous Grouse has been working with for 10 years.
Ginger Grouse has proved to be a big hit with customers following its Scottish launch, with 7,000 cases of the new drink being sold in its first six weeks.
It will now be given its UK launch in March.
Johna Penman, marketing controller for Famous Grouse, said: “Ginger Grouse is an exciting way of engaging younger people in drinking whisky when they might not have chosen it previously.
“At the moment we are doing very well and we will launch nationally in March with a £3.5million investment campaign.
“I think there are exciting times ahead. We are always trying to innovate, we don’t stand still.”
Ms Penman says the new alcoholic fizzy drink is not designed to appeal to youngsters and will not encourage underage drinking.
She said: “When we say that we are interested in recruiting younger drinkers we mean younger drinkers to the brand. Where our brand and blended whisky tends to be is 40 to 50-year-olds in terms of target consumers so this is about making it more interesting to consumers who are younger than that profile.
“Everything that we do with our marketing is all subject to Ofcom and we follow all regulations relating to that in a very strict manner.”
The success of the new range topped off a fantastic 2012 for Famous Grouse, which saw bumper sales following the launch of two limited edition whiskies for the jubilee and the summer of sport and their first summer advertising campaign.
Ms Penman said: “It’s been really exciting for us.
“Last summer we were on TV for the first time outside Christmas. Before everyone knew it was Christmas because the grouse ad was on TV but actually we felt that, given our aspirations of growing the brand and supporting the fantastic summer ahead, it was a great opportunity to take our TV campaign outside of Christmas and invest more in talking to consumers about blended whisky in the UK.
“It really paid off for us, we were certainly ahead of where we had planned to be and we came out of the summer around 80,000 cases ahead of where we expected to be at that time of year.
“It’s very important for us to maintain our number one position in Scotland so we do overinvest in the Scottish market.
“And, as a Royal Warrant holder, it was very exciting for us to be able to create a limited edition product for the celebration of the Queen’s jubilee.”
The company is now hoping to capitalise on its success by launching new products and running a similar summer campaign this year.
Johna said: “We do plan to have a similar summer campaign this year so we’re developing some of our ideas right now for that.
“I think that the team that we have use a variety of sources to really add a little bit of inspiration to what might be the next big thing so we look at trends, taste and flavour profiles; we look at what works with our product.
“For us blended whisky is an art form and we are developing new and different ways to engage people in it all the time.”
For more information about Ginger Grouse visit the Famous Grouse website.
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