FCB Cape Town, one of the traditional full service advertising agencies in the FCB South Africa group, has created two television commercials to support client Distell's bid to find a new market for its 5-year-old Viceroy Liqueur Brandy.
Its positioning over the past 60 years has centred on the statement ‘a superbly matured brandy, matured to a higher standard than other brandies, making it one of the world's great tastes in brandy.'
Distell's investment in marketing has paid dividends - the Viceroy brand ranked third in the spirits category of the recently launched Sunday Times/Markinor Top Brands Survey 2001 - and Distell intends leveraging this consumer goodwill to shift the target market to the ‘New Generation', or some 6-million 18-25 year olds.
The repositioning exercise kicked off with a launch to the trade and will be driven by the new television commercials, a radio campaign and major promotional and sponsorship spend, including sponsorship of Kick-Off magazine's ‘Soccerbabes'.
While the sponsorship and sales promotion elements will be handled by FCB Impact and FCB Sponsorship, all traditional advertising will come out of the full service agency.
Commenting on the television commercials, creative director Francois de Villiers - father of Yebo Gogo - pointed out that, in a major departure from the brand's historic advertising, they do not focus on the product but rather the lifestyle the product promises.
In addition, to appeal to the younger audience, the commercials were treated as ‘pop videos'. Shot by Jorge Rubia on The Gatehouse, they were written by Wayne Lubbe and art directed by Damion Bonse, all under the creative direction of De Villiers. Music for the two commercials was commission from two composers, both of whom have never worked in the advertising industry before.
“Our brief from Distell was to develop a concept which would acknowledge the heritage of the Viceroy brand while positioning it within a younger, more vibrant market,” said De Villiers. “FCB Cape Town's solution was to show that you can have fun with classics, you can enjoy and interact with that which you respect.
”The copy is simple and precise - ‘It takes time to make a classic … so show it some respect' and then we do anything but that,” he laughs.
In Viceroy ‘Dress', the commercial opens in a dress designer's ornate studio. The camera sweeps through the room taking in bits and pieces of beautiful fabric and exquisite accessories before settling on a ball gown modelled by a dummy. The dress is magnificent, a unique garment. The camera cuts to a young lady wearing this dress and dancing for her life in an upmarket club - in the background, the barman is twirling the Viceroy bottle as he would when mixing exotic cocktails. The commercial features some great dancing sequences - the camera moving smoothly over the dance floor as people get down. It ends commercial ends with the title ‘The time of your life'.
In ‘Gramophone', an old man lovingly restores an antique gramophone, a true classic of its type before the camera cuts to a house party where the new owner of the turn-table, a DJ, starts scratching and the party gets louder and louder. The commercial ends in the same way as ‘Dress'.
Executed only in English, the ads have been cut to 30 and 40 second versions and will be flighted on SABC1 and eTV. The five 30 second supporting radio ads will be played on Metro FM, YFM, Khaya FM, P4, Good Hope FM, Umhlobo Wenene, and Ukhozi Lesedi. Music for ‘Dress' was composed by Ryan Dent and that for ‘Gramophone' by Justin Scholtemeyr.
“The beauty of these commercials is that they do the unexpected without detracting from Viceroy's legacy and positive brand associations. They're pacy, interesting and appealing and I think they'll go a long way to assisting Distell achieve Viceroy's repositioning,” concluded De Villiers.
