Love the Red: Beefeater takes its London spirit to India
Beefeater’s Love the Red campaign is embracing its ‘Spirit of London concept’ for urban explorers in India looking to find new ways to connect to their cityscapes.
Carlotta Colkin, Director of Global Comms & Content at The Absolut Group (TAG) and Bikram Bindra, Global Content & Creative Strategist at TAG tell us about the brand’s first campaign in India and how injecting a bit of colour could disrupt its emerging gin market.
Can you explain the original concept behind The Spirit of London campaign?
The Spirit of London concept celebrates the culture of clash that lives and breathes in the heart of the city and immerses you in the effervescent energy sparked by these contrasts of city life. These are true in modern London but also many cities across the globe and are expressed through vibrant energetic visual effects and experiences. The Spirit of London platform was launched globally in 2020 and has since seen several creative iterations to keep it fresh and relevant, including a strong digital-centric nature to ensure we keep our audience engaged.
Our second iteration continues to be hugely successful across our core geographies with significant equity gains and driving distinction. It has seen a variety of special builds over time including an immersive 3D augmented reality experience, that invited consumers to use the sky as a playground for exploring, and several artist-led limited-edition bottles that showcase the vibrancy and diversity of this much-loved city.
How have you adapted the London campaign for India’s Love the Red initiative?
It embraces Beefeater’s values and uses the vibe and spirit of London as a metaphor for energetic urban centres anywhere in the world. We wanted to create a campaign that connects with our core audience in India, the urban explorers searching for fun collective moments in a highly energetic way by embracing the original Spirit of London concept.
The market in India is a wonderful opportunity for Beefeater. We are focusing on seeding the brand and its visibility in core cities over the next few years.
Carlotta
Who are ‘urban explorers’?
Our target audience the ‘urban explorers’ are defined by their values and way of living, experience is their currency, the new and the now their philosophy and the city is their playground. We know that they are urban professionals, curious, social and connected and they thrive on the relentless energy that cities offer; the city gives them endless possibilities, cultural diversity and cutting-edge creativity hence why they continue to flock to these giant conurbations!
What is the significance of using ‘red’ in India?
We felt that there was something very powerful about owning the colour red for the India campaign. Not only does red have a strong special significance in London (with its links to buses, the Underground and letterboxes) but it also does in India, where it stands for celebration, energy, vitality and passion. It also sits very strongly in the world of our brand and visual identity. We believe that using the colour red gives us two strong advantages. Our competitor brands tend to exhibit blues and greens, while gin is emotionally and visually associated with lower energy moments such as an afternoon drink embracing pastel colours and tones. Red is disruptive visually and emotionally because it’s a bold and energetic colour.
Not only does red have a strong special significance in London but it also does in India, where it stands for celebration, energy, vitality and passion
Bikram
How important is a market such as India to Beefeater?
The market in India is a wonderful opportunity for Beefeater. It continues to demonstrate strong economic performance, the sheer size of the country and its population and the fact that circa 25m legal drinking age people enter the market every year, this market has everything going for it, and as such Beefeater is focusing on seeding the brand and its visibility in core cities over the next few years driving premiumisation in the category.
How does Beefeater stay ahead of the competition and remain relevant and ‘cool’?
We’ll try not to give away too many of our secrets! It is true that gin has indeed seen immense growth over the recent years and whilst that growth is slowing in more traditional and mature markets like Northern Europe, we see it picking up in more nascent gin markets such as Latin America, Southern Europe, Central Europe and Asia. In terms of remaining relevant and cool, this is about ensuring we have a consumer-centric view of the world, understanding their needs and staying on top of trends, one in particular was the rise of moderation amongst drinkers, and as such saw us launch our first non-alcoholic offering Beefeater 0.0 at the beginning of 2024.
