The Martell Cordon Bleu 100-year celebration
Celebrating a century of fine cognac
Two months’ exposure in three Asian airports granted Martell a successful celebration of an exclusive product centenary and boosted sales as well as telling the story of a hundred years of making the famous Cordon Bleu cognac.
Famous cognac brand Martell has marked its first century of manufacturing and maturing the very fine and well renowned Martell Cordon Bleu cognac. To celebrate this very special occasion and share it with their many faithful customers and possibly reach new ones, the fine spirits manufacturer produced a limited amount of celebratory bottles of Cordon Bleu cognac and set out to market the special drink and convey the jubilant vibe to customers.
Cutting through the noise
The challenge for Martell was to both tell the story of the brand, the manufacturer, and the occasion while also nudging the public into buying said celebratory cognac. Turning to Realfiction for a solution covering all bases, Martell ended up with a great marketing campaign with results that exceeded all expectations.
Airports are busy places with loads and loads of people moving hastily through large spaces and stores always going somewhere else to reach some distant destintion. Most often the travellers do so with a lot on their mind, exclusive cognac not being one of these things. So in order to even get noticed in the hustle and bustle of moving people and competing brands and products you need to stand out exceptionally and be something out of the ordinary. And that’s exactly what Martell ended up doing.
The team picked out three major airports various places in Asia - Taipei, Malaysia and Singapore – and a two months’ campaign was launched. In each of the airports was placed a display of Martell in royal blue showing of the boxes and bottles of fine cognac, as well as TV screens and large flashy posters telling passers-by of the centennial celebration. All three airports were also staffed by Martell sales representatives greeting the travellers and inviting them to know more about the Martell brand and centenary cognac.
However, in just the Singapore airport a Dreamoc was placed showing a holographic animation that told the story of the brand’s legacy.
Visualizing brand milestones
In this case the three-dimensional animation offered the story of one hundred years of Cordon Bleu. A bottle of the centenary cognac was placed inside the Dreamoc and the 3D holographic film told the audience how the cognac has been served to Queen Elizabeth II in 1957 and that it was the Cordon Bleu being offered as a drink on the transatlantic flight back when the Concorde was still in action. The story of the brand was presented in vivid colours and moving images catching the eyes and attention of anyone walking by even in a hurry to reach their gates and flights and destinations. The combination of the physical bottle inside the Dreamoc and the images and colours swirling around it had the desired effect and drew people right in.
The results
We could tell you how successful the campaigns were, but the numbers speak for themselves, so suffice it to say, that after the two months’ of campaigning the Taipei airport had sold 58 % of the stock of cognac, and the airport in Malaysia had sold 95 % of theirs, whereas the Singapore airport with the Dreamoc had sold their stock already within the first three weeks of the campaign.
Such staggering sales figures are indeed impressive, and Martell are quick to call the campaigns an overall success, showing what you can do if you market your product with a good story and glorious visuals combined. And we were quite pleased with the results that emphasize the vision of the company; that marketing is all about telling stories and bringing your audience a little bit of magic.