Halewood Artisanal Spirits will roll out a dynamic activation programme in 2024 for its Whitley Neill gin and Dead Man’s Fingers rum brands.
In the first quarter alone, the company is running pop-ups for both brands across Europe with key locations in Birmingham, Glasgow, Stansted, Geneva, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Münich and Vienna airports. Halewood Artisanal Spirits is also running a pop-up campaign at O. R. Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg this month and March.
Halewood Artisanal Spirits has partnered with specialist retail agency Kounter to bring the pop-up campaign to life. Together, they have created a range of tasting bars, digital screens and striking merchandising units that promote both Whitley Neill and Dead Man’s Fingers across various space options.
The emphasis is on creating bold, impactful displays that build on the colours of the two brands. The partners aim to deliver engaging and fun spaces that will attract travellers at different points of their airport journey.
At the pop-ups, travellers can enjoy special tastings of Whitley Neill’s newest launch, Black Cherry. The expression blends cherry aromas with almonds and a faint chocolate flavour. Black Cherry was inspired by Brand Founder Johnny Neill’s travels to Africa and was crafted to capture the flavours of South African cherry orchards.
Halewood Artisanal Sprits Global Travel Retail Director Eamon Prunty commented: “Black Cherry was launched into the UK late 2022 as a new Christmas flavour and sold very well beyond the festive season.
“We like to ensure new flavours work sufficiently well on the domestic market before moving into global travel retail – shelf space is highly pressurised, so flavours need to be moving through at sufficient levels domestically to secure their spot in the global travel retail portfolio.”
Halewood Artisanal Spirits believes that memorable, multi-sensorial activations are an important driver for both recruitment and shopper conversion in the channel.
“We worked out very quickly that ‘me-too’ products wouldn’t work for us in travel retail markets and while global brands are important, we know that travel retail shoppers are open to new and different brands that attract their attention,” Prunty said.
“It’s all about liquid on lips – try it and buy it,” he added. “Last year saw Halewood’s largest-ever investment into supporting our brands on the shop floor and that paid huge dividends with our global travel retail seeing tangible growth. For our financial year ending June 2023, global travel retail volumes doubled versus the previous year.
“It might sound a cliché, but the airport environment really does work as a showcase for our brands and provides a superb opportunity to introduce new products and build our customer base globally,” continued Prunty.
“We find promotions that cover both brands work particularly well – travellers familiar with one brand discovering the other, often resulting in both being purchased.”
In addition to Whitley Neill and Dead Man’s Fingers, Halewood Artisanal Spirits is also investing in the expansion of its Aber Falls Single Malt Whisky brand. A recent addition to the company’s portfolio, the Aber Falls Whisky Distillery is one of only four in Wales and the first in North Wales since the early 1900s. The distillery is located near the Rhaeadr Fawr waterfall and uses locally-sourced Welsh ingredients.
Prunty concluded: “Aber Falls has masses of potential in travel retail – it’s another example of a product that’s a little bit different from the run-of-the-mill and will attract customers through its traditional Welsh heritage and quality of liquid. It sits perfectly alongside our other global travel retail brands and enables us to offer a more rounded portfolio helping us to build distribution further afield, particularly within Asia.” ✈
