A taste of the city: Pernod Ricard GTR's digital transformation
Featuring the Jameson family brand name, PRGTR’s “Arrive Like a Local” campaign spanned over 35 airports across 12 major cities worldwide
Earlier this year, Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail (PRGTR) introduced its global campaign “Arrive Like a Local” in partnership with Irish Distillers and a host of collaborators including Tripadvisor. Featuring the Jameson family brand name, the campaign launched ahead of St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) at over 35 airports worldwide. With a focus on global travel retail exclusive Jameson Triple Triple, as well Black Barrell, “Arrive like a Local” spanned 12 major cities: Dublin, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Bangkok, Barcelona, Johannesburg, Kuala Lumpar, London, New York, Paris, Sydney and Toronto.
As shared by PRGTR, the omnichannel campaign evolved the brand’s ethos to “Widen the Circle” and engaged travelers across their journey via multiple touchpoints including digital, social, retailer integration, out-of-home marketing and interactive in-store experiences. The campaign was exclusive to the channel and could be accessed via a QR code or dedicated web page, which provided Jameson-recommended places to explore, eat and drink in the form of a specially curated digital library made up of “City Guides.”
Travel retail ecosystem
As a speaker at ASUTIL 2023, Greg Ford, Pernod Ricard General Manager Travel Retail Americas, presented on digital opportunities in duty free and the company’s evolution in travel retail from digital to omnichannel marketing. According to Ford, 81% of duty free shoppers are exposed to online touchpoints at some point(s) across their travel journey and duty free alcohol shoppers who are exposed to multiple touchpoints spend up to 72% more.
During his presentation, Ford detailed PRGTR’s vision to connect with passengers across the full travel retail ecosystem, steps to change the industry via brand-retailer partnerships and ways to leverage consumer data to grow value and engagement. Along with referring to its Royal Salute Kingdom Club 3D virtual store, introduced in partnership with Lotte Korea and Changi Airport Group, and AI-powered Martell boutique at Singapore Changi Airport, Ford discussed PRGTR’s “Arrive Like a Local” campaign.
Consistent messaging & omnichannel planning
Following the trade show, Global Travel Retail Magazine followed up with Ford to learn more about the campaign and PRGTR’s mission to deliver seamless and consistent online-to-offline shopping experiences in travel retail.
With shoppers more connected now than ever, he says the effectiveness of marketing channels depends on the preferred media of each target group and/or nationality. Since consumers are driven by a range of different touchpoints and content, it is about finding the right mix in line with the company’s campaign objective and audience. Regarding “Arrive like a Local” PRGTR found second party data partnerships such as Tripadvisor, particularly effective in increasing audience engagement and driving shoppers to its brand sites; video assets also generated strong uplift in brand equity metrics including ad recall and brand awareness.
“[Arrive Like a Local] was one of our first full-scale, global campaigns that properly leveraged omnichannel planning and required a significant amount of stakeholder management across brand teams, business units, retailers, media supplier partnerships, agencies, domestic markets, and our brand company, Irish Distillers.
“Given that every touchpoint had a different role to play, consumer-centricity was paramount to touchpoint planning in making sure the media placement and creative assets met the needs and context of our audience at any given moment between pre-trip and in-airport. As a result, we discovered a highly engaged audience that over delivered on all of our key benchmarks. This demonstrates that delivering the right message at the right time is key in driving brand awareness and meaningful engagement,” explains Ford.
Available exclusively in Dublin, PRGTR created a Travel Wallet web-based app using NFT and blockchain technology
Pernod Ricard Global Travel Retail worked closely with Irish Distillers on a global creative position and tagline in order to deliver consistent messaging across its key touchpoints and airport media. To drive personalization and relevancy, the company adapted its online assets and creative content to “call out” the specific city location via pre-trip touchpoints during the research stage of the travel journey. For example, in London, the Jameson City Guide found in PRGTR’s digital library directed visitors to the London City Guide.
“From a digital media perspective, our analytics suggest New York, Dublin, London and Paris gained the highest engagement across our Jameson-curated ‘City Guides’ when consumers were in the research stage of their journey,” adds Ford.
As the home of Jameson, PRGTR created a Travel Wallet web-based app in Dublin only using NFT and blockchain technology to provide special offers and unique experiences in the city including tours of its Bow Street Distillery. With over 1,000 wallets created, this initiative reached 1.5 million travelers.
