Johnnie Walker Scotch


This article caught my eye because of it cross advertising with a very popular tv show and because I am always interested in hearing about new alcoholic beverages coming out. I am not a drinker, but I have a private dream of owning my own bar sometime, or helping a close friend run his. Knowledge is priceless.
This article goes on to explain the other successful Johnnie Walker products, licensed with HBO, already named after the popular television show “Game of Thrones”. There are even 8 more products coming out in the near future. Seven of them are named for the 7 Houses of Westeros, and the eighth is for its “Night Watch”.
The three main points to me, where talking about the connection to the television series, the product being call “White Walker”, “best served ice cold”, and the fact they went on to create a temperature sensitive label for the bottle.
Finding out there is already several alcohols named after the various beers and wines, was actually pretty interesting. I knew the show had taken over HBO and was extremely popular, but I would have never thought a whole line of alcoholic beverages would be named for them.
The “White Walker” scotch, is set to come out soon. It’s going to retail for $36 a bottle. That is $6 more than their current black label, but I am sure because of the connection to the show, it will start flying off the shelves.
They mentioned how they knew there was an “appetite” for the GOT (Game of Thrones) whiskey. Then when the Diageo marketing plan for the other drinks were presented, everyone thought it would be successful. So, they went with it.
Because of the successfulness of the past Johnnie Walker drinks geared towards the show, I didn’t really see any challenges that the company may have any time soon.
I believe the most unique thing about the marketing approach is using the “temperature-sensitive ink” on the labels. When it is freezing cold, then “Winter is Here” shows up on the bottle. So, that goes along with the slogan “best served ice cold”. If customers see the phrase “Winter is here”, then they know it is at the best temperature to be served. They also dressed the Johnnie Walker logo in armor like the ones used in the tv show.
I think the product manager, who came up with the idea is absolutely brilliant. Even though the show is set to air its last season in 2019, there is work on a prequel. In addition, this has been such a big success for HBO, I believe people will be buying GOT products for years to come. The marketing approach is genius. There is a huge GOT audience, and there are millions of people who like to drink. By combining the two markets, they hit the jackpot.
I learned that I can figure this out with a little more guidance, and it is going to be fun. I also saw that reinforcing the idea of “killing two birds with one stone” is a good way to go. This provides advertising for both the beverages and the tv show.





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