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Skyy, a subsidiary of Gruppo Campari, doesn't reveal marketing budgets, but Van Sickle reports that advertising will be focused in entertainment and lifestyle media.

A quarter of all spend will be in online sites and blogs such as Yahoo Entertainment, E! Online, P!nk, DailyCandy, Flavorpill and other daily e-blasts that offer digests of what's hot in various cities and markets, she says. Online advertising and a print campaign in titles such as People, OK!, Blender, Real Simple and Out will both begin in June.

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To convey the "real fruit" angle and capitalize on the results of taste tests, Infusions will depart from Skyy's wordless ads featuring sexy, glamorous images by David LaChapelle. "For the first time, you will see words in our advertising," says Van Sickle.

All five flavors of Infusions (citrus, cherry, passion fruit, raspberry and grape) were submitted to the Beverage Testing Institute in Chicago for taste testing versus other fruit-flavored vodkas, and they emerged as the top pick in every category-a first, according to Skyy.

In addition to advertising, the marketing, anchored by the tagline "Go Natural," will include extensive sampling, point-of-sale materials, bartender education and a cross-country mobile marketing tour for both consumer and trade functions. The tour, which will start April 1 in San Francisco and end May 31 in Miami with 13 stops in between, will take place in an Airstream SkyDeck (patio on roof) with a bar/bartender inside for "pop-up parties," and a mobile billboard.

Skyy will also debut a redesigned bottle in conjunction with the Infusions launch. The new bottle, to be used across all of its vodka lines, will retain the famous blue color but will be taller, sleeker and "more contemporary," and labels will include "strong fruit cues," says the company. In consumer tests, the new bottle raised consumer intent-to-purchase by 20% over the old Skyy Core bottle and 100% over the old Skyy Flavors bottle.

Retailing alongside the core Skyy brand at about $19 per 750-ml., Skyy Infusions will be in full national distribution by next month (Skyy’s core brand will appear in its new packaging around the same time).

"All-natural is what's hot right now, across the food and beverage industries," said Kirsten Van Sickle, senior brand manager at Skyy Vodka, San Francisco. "For us, we knew that we needed to come out with something that was very different and unique in the marketplace."

By capitalizing on the general market trend, Skyy aims to steal market share from competitors in the U.S. market, where the brand is currently the No. 4 vodka behind Smirnoff, Absolut and Grey Goose. Skyy sold an estimated 2.5 million cases in 2007-up 8.1%, per Impact, New York.

The all-natural proposition garnered 33% more purchase intent than Smirnoff's flavored product, and 13% more than Absolut's, per company research.

Also working in the brand's favor are recent Beverage Tasting Institute scores that show Skyy's products beating out all competitors across the various flavors, a point that will be hammered home in its marketing campaign.

Instead of its traditional brand advertising that posits the liquid in chic, club environments, the Infusions print ads will feature only the new bottle and fruit imagery, as well as educational copy. An ad for the raspberry flavor includes a listing of BTI scores, and the tag: "Why drink artificially tasting vodka when you can go natural?" Ads direct users to SkyyInfusions.com for more information. A 15-market, two-month mobile marketing tour and online ads also support.

In response to queries about the Infusions process, Van Sickle will say only that she sometimes uses a "metaphor": "Think about home-made infusions or infusions done in bars-they cut up fruit and put it in a vat of vodka and let it steep for a few days," she says...

March 13, 2008