Stretton's rebrands to the gin for everyone and every occasion

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Gin is cooler than ever before – and the market has exploded. But even in this new era of gin drinking, the historically colonial spirit has retained an air of snobbery. What about a gin for everyone and every occasion?

Stretton's, a relatively unknown player in the gin market, has launched a new brand identity and campaign that lets the brand retain the sophistication inherently associated with gin – but removes the perception that it is the domain of a privileged few.

“The idea is not to appeal to the classic gin target audience – we want to make it much broader and make gin accessible to a lot more people,” says Ana Rocha, creative director, VMLY&R, the agency tasked with positioning Stretton’s in a way that would make it stand out from the clutter. The result is a brand identity that flips the script on where gin fits into the beverage market.

Inspired by summer

In creating a visual identity for the campaign, the team was inspired by summer. “It’s fresh, summery, bold, impactful and in-your-face,” says Rocha. “And we make sure it doesn’t feel like the expected ‘summer visual cues’ that so many other brands use.”

This can be seen coming through in the TVCs and in murals and other branding that has been rolled out in taverns across the country – particularly in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and the Eastern Cape. The summer season has also seen activations boosting the festivity.

“At the time of this campaign launching, people had had a really tough year. We couldn’t ignore what was going on in the world of South Africans in general,” notes Rowlinson-Bisset.

“We wanted to champion the idea of feeling spontaneous. We decided to use the brand’s purpose of ‘simply unexpected’ as the campaign line too. It’s about embracing a carefree spirit – allowing people to just go with the flow and have fun because we haven’t been able to do that.”

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It goes with anything

“The messaging for gin is often about botanicals or pairings and it can be a little inaccessible to a lot of people,” says Robynne Rowlinson-Bisset, strategy director at VMLY&R, where she is account lead for Stretton’s.

While gin marketing typically tends to focus on exclusivity, Stretton’s proudly proclaims that it “goes with anything”.

“That’s from both an intrinsic (mixability) and extrinsic (it’s inclusive and easy going) perspective,” explains Rowlinson-Bisset.

“If you’re having Stretton’s with Appletiser or lemonade, that’s fine. Whoever you are and whoever you’re with, come and be part of this simply unexpected, carefree lifestyle,” she adds.