CHALLENGE
OP. Natural Flavored Spirit was a new product from V&S Vin and Sprit AB and was imported in the US by Crillon Importers, LTD., which is owned by Michel Roux, the marketer widely credited with the success of Absolut.  OP. is an Aquavit, a major distilled spirit segment in Scandinavia, but not well known in the US.  The relative obscurity of Aquavit in the US presented a significant barrier to the launch of OP. because the introductory budget would be insufficient to educate consumers about Aquavit.

SOLUTION
Advertising had to create awareness and generate trial of OP. while avoiding the need to explain Aquavit.  To this challenge, GVP’s Challenger Brand Process brought two key observations:

• Recent successful ultra-premium spirit launches had been built with a younger user profile
• Early adopters of new spirits are always searching for the “Next New Thing” that serve as a badge of their own sense of sophistication, style and cultural leadership

The intellectual curiosity of the young adult target audience led GVP to create a campaign that built trial through allusions to the unique rewards of OP.  Using cool, minimal imagery and strong package representation, the campaign positions OP. as “The Most Sophisticated Spirit” and incorporates the brands promise into its tagline, Forward Drinking.

RESULTS
In the four months following the launch, the brand exceeded the full year sales projection by 20%.  The campaign also had a strong impact on retail acceptance of the brand and distribution in Year 2 increased to almost 70% of the US.