SomeOne has created a new brand world for Chivas Regal 25 Year Old Whisky. Chivas Regal 25 Year Old is the rarest blend in the Chivas portfolio. Launched in 1909 in NYC and subsequently disappearing during prohibition and the great depression. Chivas Regal 25 was brought back to life almost a century later by Chivas master blender Colin Scott in 2007.
With the initial success of the re-launch of Chivas 25 in the New York Public library, the growing size of the product has seen a high demand for activation guidelines around the world. SomeOne was briefed to develop this side of the brand’s identity and deliver this in an inspiring and unique way to the internal Chivas marketing network.
“We didn’t set out to change anything unnecessarily” says SomeOne co-founder David Law, “The beautiful packaging work by Coley Porter Bell was the starting point for the brand world creation.”
“As Pernod Ricard is a decentralized business we set out to create a luxury brand world that could be translated by Chivas’ global marketing teams, a brand world that recalled the glamour of the Original Chivas Regal 25 – New York luxury in the first decades of the 20th century remixed for today.”
“What was important”, says Law, “was that we were able to immerse the local marketing teams in the Chivas 25 brand world in a way that would give them a clear insight as to how to create events and marketing activity that are tonally right for Chivas Regal 25 anywhere in the world.”
Instead of the usual ring-bound guidelines that are never read and are instantly out of date the moment they’re printed, SomeOne commissioned Rupert Ray to create an entire metropolitan block inspired by New York City as an interactive microsite, populated by buildings and places showcasing the various strands of marketing activity.
These places are discovered by flying around the city, hearing ambient sounds and music that guide the viewer and inspire. You can visit the airport, for example, to learn about how best to apply the brand in duty free environments. Alternatively, head for the rooftop bar to discover more about events or roam the rooftops admiring the Chivas billboard advertising campaign and other ATL assets. All the guideline content is updatable, creating ‘living’ brand guidelines.
SomeOne really understood the challenges behind implementing a luxury brand world across our global markets.
Every global brand manager was invited with a luxurious pop-up city block invitation created by SomeOne containing an access code to the internal microsite. This meant that the global Marketing Team in the UK could track who had logged into the site and monitor usage of these new guidelines.
Tom Dusseldorp, Global senior brand manager for Chivas Regal 25 Year Old, commented “SomeOne really understood the challenges behind implementing a luxury brand world across our global markets. As a result, we now have a unique brand personality and style which is based on a strong brand history. The microsite delivery means greater local inspiration and less issues with regional interpretation, for luxury brands, consistency is at the heart of what consumers expect.”
The new brand world will be rolled out in all markets from July.