Taste the Truth
Vodka Straight up
Jacquins International was looking for a non-traditional way to stand out in a crowded market with their premium product from Poland, Pravda vodka. We pitched them a branding, marketing, web development, event management and online media buying solution that would put their brand to the test…literally. They were so confident that Pravda was as good if not better than the other more highly marketed vodkas, that they were willing to do blind taste tests against other brands. So, we created the brand around the premise, Taste the Truth, (since Pravda means truth in Polish).
Re-Inventing the Drunk Dial
Administering blind taste tests is nothing ground breaking in marketing, although sharing all of the results, both positive and negative, is a little more risky, and exactly what we planned on doing. We did the taste tests organically, one person at a time at local watering
holes with people already enjoying their vodka of
choice. We also did them through a series of events
that were sponsored by Taste the Truth. We allowed
people to choose any vodka they wanted to go up
against Pravda. Once they did the test, we gave them
a phone number that they called on the spot to leave a
voice message about their preference. We then took
that exact voice message, and uploaded it to the Taste
the Truth website, again, whether it was positive or
negative. The site, which we designed and developed to
house pictures and blog recaps from the events, also
housed the audio pieces and tabulations of what
vodka’s were receiving the highest score.
Spreading the Booze
We developed a lifestyle based brand, only relying on the Taste the Truth name usage, with the addition of lifestyle images associated: such as loafers, a money clip and lipstick. We then purchased advertising that ranged from unusual offline placement, to online placement on some of the city’s most influential blogs. More and more people not only started to become more aware of the brand and the website, but the campaign started to gain attention from media sources and bar managers. The campaign received press from Brand Week and MediaPost, in addition to getting a featured cover story in PROMO Magazine. The campaign, and the notoriety from it, also enabled the Pravda sales team to use the findings and results as a basis to have bar managers carry the lesser known vodka. I’ll drink to that!
