Adgully Exclusive | Ahmed Rahimtoola on high spirited ABD

In an exclusive interview with Adgully, Ahmed Rahimtoola, Vice President, Marketing, Allied Blenders and Distillers Pvt. Ltd (ABD) discussed the spirit space in the country and elaborated on Allied Blenders and Distillers choicest products.

The differentiating factor that ABD takes pride in is that it aspires to be the most admired spirits company. Talking about some of his key highlights, Rahimtoola said, "One would be definitely Officer's Choice. Only 3 years ago, it was a 6.6 million case brand and last year Officer's Choice (2010/11) clocked a sale of 15.7 million cases. That is almost three fold. Our CAGR has been 33% against category CAGR of about 14%-15%. That's almost twice the category growth. "

ABD did extensive innovations for Officer's Choice, key being a property which they created called "Salaam Bengal and Salaam Rajasthan'; which saw a tremendous response in the states of West Bengal and Rajasthan. "The whole idea was to celebrate the achievements of common people and give them a platform to get recognized for the same. This property had a strong emotional connect with consumers. We now plan to take this property at a national level and are in talks with leading media houses for the same. So this one property that we created for Officer's Choice as a brand has been something for which company and I am very proud of," he described passionately.

"And the second key highlight would be the launch of Jolly Roger, premium dark blended with original matured Jamaican Pot Still rum and added natural spices which was launched to create a new segment," he added.

With its unique blend and international flavour, the rum offers its patrons truly differentiated, yet affordable premium dark rum, thus opening up a new segment for dark rum drinkers. Jolly Roger is the only dark rum in India which comes in family shaped bottles and tamper-proof caps across all pack sizes, instilling a youthful image and giving an assurance of quality.

"Positioned as "the spirit of Jamaica', a high decibel multimedia campaign was launched with the theme "Get High on Life'. Shot in Jamaica, the campaign celebrates the true spirit of the Jamaicans and their zest for Life. It brings alive the Jamaican's fun, smooth, cool and flirty yet sensuous attitude and their passion for music," Rahimtoola added

Presently in three states, ABD plans to launch Jolly Rogers nationally in the latter half of this year. The marketing mix for this brand of rum is mostly a mix of OOH, Radio, experiental events and aggressive BTL initiatives.

Talking about the recent campaign of Wodka Gorbatschow, Rahimtoola described in detail, "The campaign is embedded in a strong consumer insight. The insight being that we as humans play many roles in life. Some roles we play out of compulsion, some because we like them and some to please society. As a brand Wodka Gorbatschow tells its audience, that whatever role you play in life, play it with honesty, integrity and with Purity. This message is beautiful captured in the tagline "Whoever you are, BE PURE', thereby owning the high ground in Purity."

A 360 degree high decibel multi media campaign was used to communicate the new positioning which included OOH, Print, Radio and Digital

Besides, some highly innovative and buzz creating initiatives were rolled out. "The first being "Gorbatschow Face Off' in association with Zoom TV, a 10 episode series which showcased little/unknown facets of India's leading celebrities. The second being "Gorbatschow pure shots', a short film contest on the theme "Whovever you are, Be Pure". Also two leading DJ's of UK, namely Darren Bailey (of Gurujosh projects) and DJ Sanj (of American Desi fame) were brought down for an all India tour," said Rahimtoola

Talking about the association with One-Take Media for the short film contest, Rahimtoola said, "Gorbatschow Pure shots is a short film contest based on the theme "Whoever you are, Be pure'. The objective of this contest was to gauge today's generation's perception of purity and how we could leverage the same through the digital media.We had eminent jury members like Mahesh Bhatt, Prahlad Kakkar, Gul Panag, Shyam Benegal, Nagesh Kukunoor and Sudhir Mishra who were also part of this initiative."

Adding on he said, "The response for the contest was overwhelming with over 271 entries received. More than 25,000 votes were cast and the winner will get all expense trip to Cannes Film Festival 2011.

In fact Mahesh Bhatt liked the concept so much that has volunteered to do a short film with a film maker that he thinks has the best potential under a special "Jury award" category. Since we have the rights for all 271 films, we plan to promote the top 15 films extensively through digital media."

Recently with MTV, ABD has created a property called True Life, which is all about "Real Stories about Real People'. This is a 10 series property, which is aired every Friday at 7pm

He further added, "If you see the execution and the content, it is very bold. We started with very low rating of 0.07, which has now stabilized at appropx 0.25. With 13 repeat episodes a week, it is building a lot of frequency. And is also getting a lot of conversations around the brand. Our micro site (www.wodkagorbatschow.co.in) is very different from the other sites, and showcases different sides of people"

Commenting on incorporating social media into their marketing strategies, he explained, "Social media is very important. Everything we did for Gorbatschow has got a social media integration."

ABD has also completely revamped the identity of its other product, Class 21 right from the packaging to the brand communication. Rahimtoola said, "The brand was rechristened as Class 21. The new name and identity embodies and connects with the spirit of today's youth. With a unique, cutting-edge bottle to capture the imagination of hip and trendy consumers, Class 21 stands a class apart from other spirit brands in the category. Launched with a tagline "Thank God for 21', the new campaign reflects the attitude of today's youth. The campaign highlights the fun, zestful side of being 21. It has showcases the youth, their lifestyle and celebrates the experience and joys of being at this cool age."

The brand has been in launched in nine states across the country and the feedback has been extremely positive and encouraging all across, he further added.

Class ended this year with sales of 2 lacs cases, registering a growth of 36% over the previous year.

ABD is looking at a 100 % growth in terms of numbers for Class 21 and is targeting a sale of half a million cases for the year 2011/12, which would give it an 8% market share in the regular vodka segment.

Today ABD is the third largest spirit's company in the country. "We were on number 6 exactly 3 years ago. We have set a very challenging mission for ABD which is to be the 2nd largest player in the IMFL category within the next 5 years. A detailed plan is currently being drawn up to achieve this mission"

This year ABD plans enter a new category which is Brandy and plans to launch two brands targeting different consumer segments. Both these brands will be launched in South, which is a huge brandy market