Remy Martin Stages Interactive Street Campaign

Growth in the liquor category is slowing as consumers curtail spending. For Remy Martin, a brandy from the Cognac region of France, that means it’s time for change. A new $3.8 million campaign shuns traditional media and hijacks a storefront on a New York City street. The effort pours out across five key markets with a focus on the all important holiday season.

The brand’s core target — termed polychromes by Remy — is influential, social and multicultural urban males, ages 25 to 35.

Roberto Cruz:, the brand director for Remy Martin Cognac USA, recently returned from a visit to the company’s distillery in Cognac.

PROMO: Why the new tag line: “Things Are Getting Interesting.”

Cruz: It’s a metaphor for an exclusive place, an underground lounge, where multicultural people mix and mingle.

P: Why the move away from traditional media?

C: The best way to reach our consumer is through non-traditional media. Rather than your same old print materials and radio, we decided to do outdoor only in five specific markets: New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago and Miami.

P: Why outdoor?

C: We felt that outdoor was a medium our target was receptive to. We wanted to surround them in the urban space where they live and party.

P: What types of outdoor marketing are you using?

C: In the traditional sense, we are blanketing the urban landscape: billboards, wallscapes, phone kiosks. In the non-traditional, we had this interactive storefront that went up in early October and ran through Nov. 8.

P: How did you do that?

C: We painted a storefront in between a restaurant and liquor store to simulate an underground lounge. We took the creative and made it a living, breathing billboard at 455 West Broadway in Soho.

P: What made it interactive?

C: People who walked by were prompted to knock on the door. If they did, a three-dimensional, virtual screen looked like a bouncer was opening a window. Club music started playing and the bouncer gave a branded message about how to get on the invite list for Remy Cognac events running in the New York area. An SMS texting code started the interaction.

P: How did it go?

C: With so many moving parts we wanted to test it in New York first, focus on making it right and possibly rolling it out in other cities. We are waiting on results, but anecdotally we can say it seems like it’s working because we are seeing the interaction. It’s a hell of a billboard because it has such a good presence in the neighborhood.

P: How many events are you holding this year?

C: About 700 nationwide.

P: How do the other outdoor media play into the campaign?

C: There is a call out on the billboards to check out the Web site, www.getinteresting.com. We just upgraded the site and will continue to throughout the campaign, which runs through March.

P: Has your marketing strategy been impacted by the sharp falloff in consumer spending?

C: Yes. We see a slowing of the growth within the cognac category and with Remy Martin. We see this as a short-term phenomenon because we can stand on our value, which puts us in a very good position for the long term when the economy comes back and consumers continue to look for quality and value.

P: Has your marketing budget been affected?

C: At this point, our budget is holding to what we planned for this year. We have a three-pronged strategy: to make Remy relevant through media, to dominate through on-premise events, and to activate in off-premise.

P: What’s next?

C: This is the initial launch, the tip of the iceberg. This is seed money to make this smaller effort in one medium grow into something bigger in other advertising mediums, like print or online. You’ll also see the campaign come to life in the on- and off- premise.

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