This month Diageo GTME launches its keynote global summer campaign, Take Your Summer Spirit with You. The initiative is an enhanced summer campaign that utilizes a fresh contemporary look and builds on the phenomenal success of its 2009 summer promotion.

Running from June through to September, the global through-the-line campaign highlights Diageo’s exceptional stable of well-loved brands, including Smirnoff, Baileys, Pimm’s, Gordon’s, Captain Morgan, Crown Royal, Jose Cuervo and Bell’s. According to Diageo, the campaign is “designed to drive category footfall and increase sales among consumers purchasing their favorite brands to enjoy both on holiday and at home on their return.” The campaign utilizes Diageo’s intensive research program to build on consumers’ emotional connections with the “first drink of the holiday.”

The innovative campaign incorporates engaging concourse activations, easy serve sampling, promotional recipe cards, vibrant visuals across advertising and value deals (including a beach bag gift with purchase). All this is supported by highly appealing product imagery and the use of a holiday beach theme to project the summer holiday spirit—including a beach-effect textured floor decal that guides shoppers to the sampling station.

The campaign’s flexible structure and extensive range of support materials enables it to be carefully tailored to the specific needs of each market location. The in-store materials and sampling experiences also carry strong emphasis on engaging and educating shoppers to understand how easy it is to enjoy the brands both away and at home. A recipe booklet featuring up to 13 recipes guides shoppers to make their own perfect summer drinks, including a Smirnoff Moscow Mule, Baileys Frappé and a Jose Cuervo Margarita.

The campaign has developed an interesting focus on departure and arrivals messaging, utilizing three different headline formats to target shopper profiles more precisely.

The three formats enable the promotion to engage with target shoppers at each of the identified key stages in consumer travel: outbound airport/cruise/border stores (Take Your Summer Spirit with You); inbound airport (Take Your Holiday Spirit with You); and domestic (Pick Up Your Summer Spirit Today, in MENA only).

Caroline Lyons, Diageo GTME Marketing Manager White Spirits, Gins and Liqueurs, comments: “The effectiveness of our summer theme was demonstrated by the exceptional performance we delivered last summer. For example, at Dubai Duty Free we saw phenomenal double-digit growth in all our brands compared to 2008. All our retail partners were extremely positive about the 2009 promotion and helped drive further sales from sites by fine-tuning sales strategies. This year we have adapted our intensive research learnings from that campaign, from both shopper feedback and by listening to our retail partners, to make the 2010 campaign even stronger for shoppers, retailers and our brands.

“With our retail partners, we are looking forward to another scorching summer and, by engaging and delighting the shopper with this colorful and engaging campaign, we will once again drive stronger summer footfall and sales for the whole liquor category,” she concludes.

The global campaign is operating in partnership with a number of leading retailers and is hosted at a wide range of leading locations across airports, cruise ships and border stores. Highlights include:

Americas: In North America, the Summer Spirits campaign reaches from Canadian border stores, with a number of retailers such as Nuance, right to the Mexican border, with Dufry and Aldeasa. It is also driving onboard sales with Starboard.

Europe: Diageo GTME is working with all its main retail partners on the promotion—including WDF, Aldeasa and Nuance—by offering price promotions, sampling, in- and out-of-store visibility with the beach bag GWP in selected locations. Key promotional highlights will include travel retail locations in Russia, where an unprecedented level of activity compared to previous years will be rolled out.

MENA: The campaign will have high visibility in duty free locations across the Gulf, including Dubai Duty Free, Abu Dhabi Duty Free, Sharjah Duty Free and Qatar Duty Free. The focus of the activity will be on in-store activations. Neck tags using the strap line from the campaign will feature on bottles to help create greater stand out on shelf. Dubai Duty Free will host the return of Lola, the VW-branded camper van that was such a success last year. This year Lola will have a new paint job; she’ll be re-branded with the new visual and campaign strap line. From the van, the promotional team will run non-alcoholic sampling of the Baileys Frappé summer drink.