Client: Stock Spirits Group PLC
Brief: Stock tasked us with establishing how we could realise more value from an undervalued 25 year old single malt that sat outside their core range of products.
Solution: We engaged with luxury venues throughout London to first establish how other luxury brands would position their products to best serve an on-trade contact. From this, we learned that consumers needed to be able to step up to higher-value products, so with this learning, we developed a distillery brand and created a structure of expressions that would allow for this consumer journey. Finally, we partnered with a high street luxury brand to launch to high net worth consumers.
Stock Spirits PLC approached Masters of Brands with a brief to explore how we could realise more value for their portfolio of products within the UK market.
Happy for us to explore their portfolio, we discovered an anomaly – that hidden in their range of vodka’s and liqueurs, stood a lone whiskey.
Digging deeper, we discovered an amazing story, one that could be distilled to create something truly special.
As one of the only single malts to be made in the Czech Republic, it was the story of the origin – one which we helped hone and bring to life – which made this whiskey so remarkable.
It centres on the small village of Pradlo, on the outskirts of Plzen, in the Czech Republic. Here, a quaint distillery which produced spirits for many years was presented with a Communist Party initiative to develop a whiskey while the country was under a trade embargo.
The Pradlo distillery finally sealed their unique bohemian creation in casks in 1989 – the year the Iron Curtain fell. Like most of the Communist’s initiatives, the whiskey was soon forgotten. That was until Stock Spirits acquired the distillery in the early 2000s and made the discovery of this unique single malt.
Aged for 25 years in ancient oak casks to give a uniquely dark and velvet drinking experience, this new chapter for Pradlo required a strategy that would captivate modern customers.
So to help launch the product, we created pockets of activity, partnering with established brands to complement a whiskey made with a difference.
One joint venture was with British shoe manufacturer Jeffery West. Co-founder, Guy West, played a key role in the development of a 300-bottle limited expression that reflected the craftsmanship and uniqueness of the brand.
The end result was a stunning bottle design that was given as gifts to key customers. Created in a distinctive bottle which incorporates a laced leather polished label, each vessel was sealed by hand in wax with Jeffery West’s classic Death moth symbol and offered in a limited-edition presentation box.
On a first come, first served basis in Jeffery West stores and at exclusive events, guests were also offered the opportunity to personalise their leather label to truly make their valuable gift unique to them.
Limited edition and highly collectible, this was a one-of-a-kind promotion for a whiskey which simply refused to be forgotten.