Stoli To Get U.K. Push This Year

Dan Marsteller
Posted: June 29, 2010

SPI Group is planning a multi-faceted promotional push for Stolichnaya
in the U.K. market this year, including advertising, two new products,
on-trade partnerships and an advocacy program with mixologist
Salvatore Calabrese. Andrey Skurikhin, partner at SPI Group, said,
“The U.K. is a crucial market for us and it is only fitting that we
place a huge emphasis on it this year in order to meet our global
objectives.”

SPI says the media portion of the campaign will see a “significant
investment,” with outdoor and press ads appearing nationwide after an
initial “up-weighting” in London. (The creative for the U.K. media
campaign has yet to be announced. Stoli is unveiling a new
multimillion-dollar “Lead On” series of ads in the U.S. this year,
following the discarding of its former “authenticity” positioning.)

Two new Stoli extensions will be introduced from August, intended to
burnish the brand’s innovation credentials, and the vodka will enjoy
prominent placement in leading U.K. nightclubs like Boujis in London
(including a new Stoli Elit VIP room) and Oran Mor in Glasgow
following agreements with those establishments. Finally, SPI has
enlisted mixologist Salvatore Calabrese to promote the brand in a
yearlong project including signature cocktails, cocktail “master
classes” held in several international markets, and a video touting
Stolichnaya’s use in cocktails.

Stoli is handled by Maxxium in the U.K., the world’s second-largest
premium vodka market, where it’s among the leading premium vodkas.
Globally the brand was down 4.5% to 3.2 million nine-liter cases in
2009, according to Impact Databank.

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