Strong foundations, dogged consistency and discipline as trends evolve
In conversation with Carmen d’Ascendis
Carmen is a legend in the industry. In over 26 years working at Brown Forman (that’s some career longevity) he served variously as Regional Managing Director, Global Brand Director and Marketing VP in the US, across Europe, Asia Pacific and Australasia, including a 7 year stint with Jack Daniels as Regional Director in Asia, global RTD Director and VP Global Marketing. He’s overseen best in class work in all channels from being an on-premise manager in Manhattan to overseeing global ATL campaigns in partnership with the world’s best agencies. He’s now a consultant - if you’ve got a drinks brand get in touch. Details on my Linked In.
Carmen’s track record is in driving long-term sustainable growth. He’s been phenomenal at it. Since he first entered the industry, the landscape has been revolutionised by social media and ever-evolving consumer trends and tastes which, especially amongst younger audiences, have rapidly accelerated. He’s learnt how to adapt.
We spent an invaluable hour discussing his advice on how drinks brands are built for the long-term.
Inspo from outside the category
Given his years of experience in drinks, it’s interesting that Carmen cites James Bond as an example of maintaining relevance in an ever-evolving culture. The key to the success of the James Bond franchise, one of the most successful of all time now 60 years in and with over $60bn of revenue accrued, has been its ability to stay true to its core brand whilst updating executional elements in synch with the ages - casting, plot lines, production design, brand endorsements. The man himself - and Barbara Broccoli has categorically ruled out a female lead at any point in the future - has always been British, brave, taciturn, urbane and quick witted - but the world he operates in has evolved with the times. I’m sure (and I hope) we’ll see an ethnically diverse Bond soon. In the Craig era he’s been surrounded by strong female characters and we’ve seen a feminine side to the man himself. The opening sequence/ theme song has always been a genius inlet for contemporary culture from Shirley Bassey to Billie Eilish.
The owners of the franchise know that 007 will never appeal to everyone but decade after decade they have brought new audiences in and kept them in.
A case study in drinks
A direct parallel would be Jack Daniels, where for more than 50 years, the whisky and Lynchburg, its hometown, were the centre piece of advertising and promotion. Through countless brand manager churn the message remained constant – photos and words that satisfied an unspoken longing that is timeless, genuine and authentic. This campaign Postcards From Lynchburg started in print but evolved as media options expanded.
A high point from Carmen’s time on the brand is “Barrel Tree” a creative execution that remained true to the ethos of “Postcards.” It was an holistic campaign touching all channels, from broadcast to social, in retail and the product itself. “We bottled and sold the whisky from the 186 barrels used to construct the Jack Daniel’s Barrel Tree. We also kicked-‐off a new tradition, the lighting of the barrel tree at the annual Christmas festival in Jack Daniel’s hometown of Lynchburg Tennessee”.
A mini-version of the barrel tree was built in Convent Garden.
Jack Daniels has also been quietly leading in innovation over time. The liquid expressions of the brand have found success in flavoured full-strength spirits, super-premium, and ready-to-drink
The recent launch of the Jack Daniels & Coca Cola RTD timeless classic crossed with contemporary lifestyle. It has enjoyed critical and commercial success. Jack and Coke has been a top-five bar call for decades, making it a natural for what Carmen calls a convenience RTD – the most common bar drinks pre-packaged in convenient formats.
Celebrities and strong foundations
In general, where a drinks brand lands celebrity endorsement, if the underlying foundation of the brand isn’t strong enough, the brand is a hostage of fortune to the celebrity. Aviation Gin is a great example of how to get this right.
After much deliberation, they made a great decision to work with Ryan. To quote the team at the time “Aviation had been in the market for over a decade already, with award-winning liquid in the bottle and the love of bartenders built carefully by a passionate team. The foundation was strong, we just needed a shot in the arm to scale with consumers.”
Avoiding category traps
Traps and clichés. If you’re true to your vision and to yourself you’re in safer territory. Historically white spirits have reverted to a party in a bottle. When building the Della Vite brand and premiumising Prosecco in the process, we spent a lot of time working out how we could subvert the conventions of Champagne. We decided that being a sparkling wine we had to stand for celebration, that was an unavoidable category truth. But we lent into a free-spirited and spontaneous expression of celebration that was the opposite of the archaic formality of the traditional Champagne occasion.
Dogged consistency and the bottom-up build
Carmen is adamant about this - and my eyes were opened up to it working with Della Vite - drinks brands are built from the bottom up, it takes time, there’s no silver bullet, you grind it out and keep doing the same thing. Shout out to Chris Maffeo for banging this drum on Linked In, we’re both fans. After 10 years of groundwork Aviation was in a position to capitalise on the involvement of Ryan Reynolds. He was the injection of contemporary culture that facilitated scale.
New brands built with the strongest foundations grow block by block, city by city, building commercial proof points that create a compelling story for the trade, and allow you to scale in stages, each one making the foundation stronger. (This approach is more recognised in the US than in Europe where launches tend to be state if not city driven. To put this into context for UK readers, the size of the drinks market in Southern California alone is roughly the same as the whole of the UK).
A current case study is Tito’s Vodka, now the US’ biggest selling vodka at 12 milliion cases which was bubbling away under the surface until the craft and artisan trend took off. When it did, they were ready having already laid their foundation: a world-class product, growing group of first adopters and national distribution. They were in the right place at right time to capitalise - with an authentic and differentiated proposition.
The hardest part of strategy is sticking with it
That’s true in the short-term as well as the long-term. Best practice in marketing in all categories applies: be singled-minded in message discipline - choose 1 to 2 and repeat them relentlessly in all channels. Carmen agrees with other marketing thought leaders here: there’s no such thing as wear-out.
Operationally there are challenges over time. These campaigns last longer than the job cycle of any one brand manager. The organisation needs to create tools and assets that transcend staff churn, you need always to be educating with consistency of information and robust materials (brand books). For global brands like JD, it can take 12-18 months for new campaign ideas to cascade into all channels and all geographies. There is a long-tail.
Luck and opportunism play their part
We spent some time discussing how Absolut broke through with the trade back in the day given it was a brand built on aesthetics rather than occasion. The historical backdrop is key. For a decade at least Stolichnaya dominated. But when Russians shot down a Korean airliner in 1983 boycotts came in, Stoli was sidelined and the commercial team at Absolut took their opportunity. The same is true of Tito’s who were trucking along building a brand they believed in until the trend for the artisanal gave them a foot hold to scale. Jack Daniels had their own moment when the Rolling Stones were pictured with a bottle on tour in 1970s.
Now days though, brand teams need to be culture marketers: spot the trends and the influencers where there’s an authentic link and execute accordingly. This is exactly what Whispering Angel did when they placed bottles in the hands of aspirational people in sunshine hotspots, providing an innovative brand with cultural relevance.