FDBusiness.com

Spirits group and Scotch whisky distiller William Grant & Sons will launch a new, worldwide, integrated advertising campaign in 2011 for its recently acquired Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey brand. William Grant acquired Tullamore Dew in July 2010 and it is now one of the company’s six core brands.

Tullamore Dew is currently the world’s second largest Irish whiskey, selling over 650,000 cases worldwide. In the past decade, while the Irish whiskey category has seen strong volume growth of more than 50%, Tullamore Dew has more than doubled its volumes and grown its market share from 9.3% to 13.7% – a rise of almost 50%.

Tullamore Dew is also the largest selling whiskey of any type in the Czech Republic, Denmark and the Baltics. In addition, it is the number one Irish whiskey in Germany, Sweden, Bulgaria, Poland and Estonia.

The brand is now aiming for strong growth across all key markets, and will leverage the global distribution capability of William Grant to significantly grow its market share, particularly in the UK and the US. It will also grow its presence in Ireland, with a focus on airports and key tourist destinations, high profile hotels and bars around the country. It will have a special focus on Tullamore town, where the Tullamore Dew Heritage Centre has just celebrated ten years in business with visitor numbers up 18% year on year.

William Grant’s newly established Dublin-based global marketing office has appointed McCann Erickson (Dublin) to spearhead the new multi-million euros campaign. In addition to Tullamore Dew, the global marketing office also handles the Hendrick’s gin and Sailor Jerry spiced rum brands.