NETHERLANDS. Diageo Global Travel has launched its Johnnie Walker House concept in a striking two-storey outlet at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It is the first of the brand’s whisky embassies to open in Europe.
The company partnered with Schiphol Airport Retail (majority-owned by Gebr Heinemann) for the launch in the airport’s Lounge 2, to which selected media, including The Moodie Davitt Report, were invited on Friday.
The Johnnie Walker House Amsterdam Airport Schiphol occupies 162sq m over the two floors, and is intended as a ‘part gallery, part museum’ experience. It features a multisensory retail setting, showcase walls, ‘theatrical mentoring’ sessions led by brand ambassadors plus a tasting bar.
Diageo said it aims to immerse travellers in the history of both the Johnnie Walker brand and the whisky making experience at the embassy. This is reflected in the design, which features copper, water, barley, peat and oak.
The Amsterdam showcase is the latest addition to the expanding international network of Johnnie Walker whisky embassies. It follows airport launches in Mumbai, Taipei and Singapore.
Diageo Global Travel and Middle East Managing Director Doug Bagley said: “Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is Europe’s fifth largest airport, welcoming over 26 million travellers each year, and is estimated to grow faster than any other airport in Europe in the coming years.
“This growth, combined with the burgeoning demand for luxury spirits in travel retail, offers a prime opportunity for the Johnnie Walker House Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to deliver an innovative and appealing shopping experience to travellers, as well as giving them access to some of the world’s finest Scotch whiskies and exclusive House editions.”
He added later: “Ultimately, this is a sign of Diageo’s commitment to travel retail. There are two billion travellers worldwide each year and we have a wonderful opportunity to engage with them in a different way. The Johnnie Walker House is our strategy brought to life, a strategy that is built around premiumisation, exclusive products and exciting the shopper with new experiences.”
Schiphol Airport Retail Managing Director Peter-Jan Rozenberg said: “Today’s launch reconfirms our commitment to offering visitors to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol a unique retail and food & beverage proposition, access to the world’s most sought-after brands and delivers an ultimate customer experience into the luxury lifestyle of Johnnie Walker.”
Johnnie Walker House Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is said to be inspired by the journey of Johnnie Walker to the Netherlands in 1913 and is open to all passengers in Lounge 2. Tasting sessions in the private, luxury bar and lounge located on the first floor are available to purchase.
A limited edition Blue Label will be exclusively available to embassy visitors. Called Johnnie Walker House Blue Label Casks Edition – Schiphol Limited Edition, it has been created to reflect Amsterdam’s historical importance as a trade hub.
The bottle has been illustrated by local artist Merjin Hos, and depicts the brand’s Striding Man travelling from Scotland to Schiphol in a large wooden clog surrounded by tulips, windmills and bicycles.
For the first time in Europe, Johnnie Walker House Exclusive Collections will be available at retail, through Johnnie Walker House Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. These include: John Walker & Sons Master Blenders Collection, Johnnie Walker Epic Dates Collection, and Johnnie Walker House Zodiac Collection.
Q&A with Diageo Global Travel & Middle East Managing Director Doug Bagley and Gebr Heinemann Executive Director Purchasing & Logistics Kay Spanger
The Moodie Davitt Report: What was the thinking behind opening the first Johnnie Walker House in Europe here at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol?
Doug Bagley: First and foremost for any successful venture you have to have a successful partnership. We have a strong strategic partnership with Schiphol Airport Retail and Heinemann.
Schiphol is the fifth-biggest airport in Europe, it is among the fastest growing, it is located in the centre of Europe and it attracts travellers from all regions.
The other element is space. It’s not in every location that you work on this scale; here we have 162sq m over two floors to develop a multi-sensorial experience.
It also fits with our travel retail strategy, which has three key elements. The first is premiumisation, keeping buoyancy and value in the category. Second is to launch exclusive products to the channel; shoppers like mementoes from their trip and they like Johnnie Walker special editions in particular. And the third element, and this is important in the context of the Johnnie Walker Houses, is to enhance the shopper experience.
While the channel is buoyant and the macro factors for growth are encouraging, we do have some challenges. Only 30% of people ever enter a duty free store and of those only 40% buy anything, so as an industry we have a 12% conversion level in the category.
So how do we engage with people in a different way? I think there is no better brand than Johnnie Walker, which has close to 200 years of history – and here they can learn about that brand’s history and taste, touch and smell the product and hear about its provenance. By doing that, we not only create an experience but we can sell more too. It can complement the main store but doesn’t cannibalise that store.
How have you tried to capture the attention of travellers with this new environment?
Kay Spanger: Everyone is talking about retail-tainment but not many people are doing it. We attract the consumer who wants to explore, the consumer who is also maybe fed up with crowded places elsewhere in the airport. Also we have not just copied what is elsewhere. There are exclusive vintages such as the limited-edition bottle which is created by a local artist in Delft porcelain. We can do more of these things.
You have to have a spirit of adventure and to risk something. But to do that you need partners who think in the same way. We want to create new ventures but it needs time and you must believe in it.
How do you measure return on investment with a venture such as Johnnie Walker House?
Doug Bagley: It gives an opportunity to build equity in the brand, which is one measure. It also needs to be commercially viable for the retailer and airport. If it’s not, then the space could be used for something else. So there’s a healthy level of tension between the parties that should ensure each benefits from the outcome.
We’ll continue to experiment between what is the experience and what can translate into the commercial return.
Kay Spanger: The next step is how we jointly activate the store. We have a great environment, a great assortment, now let’s get people in. We need to take a long breath. If you introduce a new trendy luxury brand it is difficult to make it work in the first 12 months as you have to get the experience right, you have to tweak the assortment and you have to approach the consumers in a different way.
Can you engage with all types of consumers here, even with a focus on the super-premium and deluxe items?
Doug Bagley: We have to be more balanced in how we engage with travellers. It’s not all about super-premium, it’s about Johnnie Walker. If we are uptrading people from Red to Black then that is what it’s all about too. It’s about getting people to engage with and understand the brand.
How else can you engage with potential shoppers in new ways?
Kay Spanger: We have begun a combination with HMSHost [F&B concessionaire at Schiphol] that could be interesting around pairing food and drinks. This may be an opportunity here. It’s a good way to entertain the consumer and we can do more on this.
Also this environment is about trial and service. There are parallels with other categories. In beauty you can create an animation where you get your makeup done for free and in that case you are not seeking a price discount as you might do in other stores. It’s quite comparable. You can taste and introduce an experience, whether that is pairing chocolates and wines as we did in Frankfurt Airport with Lindt and Masi. If you never trial anything you won’t move forward, and you have to keep doing it, not just try things once.
Doug Bagley: We can also bring the store to life by leveraging festive occasions in the year, whether it’s Chinese New Year, Father’s Day, King’s Day or other themed events.
The aim is to bring travellers in and excite them about the brand, and then offer them the new and exclusive products.
The interesting thing about the other Houses in Asia is that where they are adjacent to the main store, sales from Johnnie Walker House have been incremental, and a key reason is the exclusives.
Beyond that there is a big opportunity in leveraging the Johnnie Walker database of consumers to talk about what’s new in Amsterdam or in the other Houses, and to engage digitally with those consumers where we are allowed to do that. There are individuals who travel a lot and want access to those new products.
Kay Spanger: We too have our database and we can communicate to them regularly via our website among our own whisky buyers. This is a location where we can do special events for VIPs, something they won’t get anywhere else. And those people talk to and influence others.
What more can the Johnnie Walker Houses do for the brand?
Doug Bagley: The exclusives and limited editions are important but the biggest benefit is the halo effect on the scale brands, and Johnnie Walker Blue is the centrepiece here. It has size, it has the association with the shopper and that is an anchor. For other shoppers that will be Black Label, but the key is to anchor on the brand they know and then premiumise from there.
Also, when we do come out with something new it makes sense to do it in the Houses. Johnnie Walker Island Green for example is present first in the world here and that makes perfect sense as a launchpad.
On top of that there is the sizeable gifting opportunity. If you are travelling tomorrow and you want to buy a gift, there is nothing to stop you calling ahead and having a bottle engraved with the name of the recipient or a message, and we can do that. We want to personalise the experience too, and we know that 60% of all purchases are driven by gifting. Then you really are getting something that is quite exclusive and unique.
What more do you want to see from the other parties in the Trinity, airports and retailers, to create a platform for this kind of investment in future?
Doug Bagley: It’s similar to what have with Heinemann today. Here we have a willingness to be more adventurous in capturing the consumer. We all have the same challenge and opportunity around conversion. And as airports get more efficient people will have less dwell time, so we must partner effectively to engage people in changing times.
Kay Spanger: It’s not rocket science. It’s about trying new things but not in the same way everywhere; you do it where the space is available and reasonable and you can specialise effectively. We also want that sense of adventure and to ensure the consumer recognises that this store is different from others. When we started with the Heinemann Duty Free brand in 2008 among the goals was to be more personal and innovative and service-oriented. That still applies now we are in the e-commerce age.
Finally, what’s the significance of today’s opening for the brand and how do you see the future for the Johnnie Walker House concept?
Doug Bagley: I’d like to make it clear how proud we are to be able to give something back to the Johnnie Walker brand. Not many brands have 200 years of history, and to have the chance to display it like this, to help people experience the story and understand the history is really special. It’s all about travel too; Johnnie Walker was in 120 countries before Coca-Cola expanded beyond the USA. This is simply a great story.
This House is exciting in that it’s a regional first. It’s exciting also because we don’t come in knowing exactly what will happen. We are taking on a new adventure and taking a risk and seeing how it will work in a brilliant new location.
We have something quite unique here. For the future we’ll tread wisely and strategically around this concept, where we have the right partnership and space. We are very excited about the prospects and about the future of this concept.
