Pernod Ricard – which boasts brands including Absolut, Chivas Regal, Jacob’s Creek, and Jameson – had the aim of reaching consumers in transit at airports across the UK. To achieve this, the alcoholic beverage giant enlisted the help of S4M to promote two of the brand’s whiskies to travellers and drive them into duty-free stores prior to take-off.

The mobile campaign geo-targeted international terminals at UK airports to promote the Chivas Regal 12 and Brother’s Blend whiskies. The campaign included mobile-specific creatives built to align with the Chivas Regal brand position and heritage.

From the mobile, once interacted with, travellers were provided with a map and directions to their nearest duty-free store on a customised landing page.

“We were exceptionally innovative on two aspects in this campaign – the audience targeting and mobile-specific creatives that aligned with our ultra-premium brand position & century-old heritage,” said Daniel Miller, digital manager of travel retail for EMEA at Pernod Ricard. “We were able to geo-target travellers at international terminals to increase foot traffic into duty free shops. Within a cluttered/busy airport space, travellers want clear instructions to stores. So, we took users into a customised landing page with a detailed map of their specific terminal and easy-to-follow instructions to facilitate the shopping experience before take-off. This was truly key to delivering real-world impact during the campaign.”

Over the month-long period of the campaign, 306 visits into duty-free stores were measured – with 126 incremental visits attributed from the campaign. 175 visits into stores took place between one hour to five days after they were exposed to the campaign, and 131 visits between six days to three weeks after exposure.  

The campaign generated a visit rate of 0.31 per cent and a 70 per cent store uplift, according to S4M. 77 per cent of the total visits took place between 7am and 7pm, while 71 per cent of all visits were on weekdays. Furthermore, Monday was the most effective day, generating 20 per cent of visits.

“Our challenge in this campaign was to go beyond delivering impressive online results during the campaign from ad impressions,” said Andy McNab, UK managing director at S4M. “We were able to provide visits into real-world duty-free stores around UK airports while the campaign was ongoing. This presented a huge opportunity to optimise our media and audience targeting strategy based on offline results throughout the campaign period. Drive-to-store strategies like what was done for Pernod Ricard is the best way for advertisers to measure incremental visits as a direct ROI from digital advertising investments.”