‘After a Health Select Committee’s report last week, alcohol brands face a possible ban on television advertising. But an all-out ban need not spell disaster for this already promotionally fettered industry: it could lead to new highs of creative strategic thinking.’

Anna Eggleton, Director of Closeness, comments in last week’s Marketing Week’s lead article, ‘Putting a new face on your brand’ by Jo Roberts:

‘Stretching an alcohol brand into different territories is something that Anna Eggleton, director at The Value Engineers, believes could work well in the UK for brands with strong personalities. Some companies are practising displacement marketing in various forms already, she argues.

“If you have a good brand like Camel or Marlboro, it should have a life of its own,” says Eggleton. She says the practice of displacement marketing is about “thinking about branding in a different way.” Many alcohol brands are already thinking beyond large-scale television campaigns to get messages across to their target audience.

She argues that Guinness is already practising displacement because it is already well-known outside of its sector. Merchandise such as T-shirts, key rings and hats are available, and the brand has also strayed into food with limited edition Marmite flavoured with Guinness.

The Value Engineers’ Eggleton claims that the smart brands “need to start thinking about putting strategies in place now” in order to stay ahead of any future restrictions.’

Read the full article on Marketing Week online.

1. “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” (Benjamin Franklin)

2. “You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline – it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.” (Frank Zappa)

3. “A quart of ale is a dish for a king.” (William Shakespeare)

4. “Wine is but single broth, ale is meat, drink, and cloth.” (16th century English proverb)

5. “Beer – Because one doesn’t solve the world’s problems over white wine.” (Anonymous)

Borrowed with pride from all over the place.

Yet again we have had the honour to contribute to a set of articles published in The Grocer in the last couple of weeks.

Alex Waters, director of Capabilities, comments in last week’s article “Can new campaign resolve the binge drinking problem?” written by Nicolette Allan and Richard Ford (25th July 2009). The article discusses whether the latest campaign against binge drinking (which will favour subtle persuasion over scare tactics) will work. For an extract of what Alex has to say please see below and the full article can be found on The Grocer’s website.

The week before, our director of Closeness, Anna Eggleton, comments in an article written by James Ball entitled “Clear Skies for Brands; Heavy Clouds for Own Label” (18th July 2009) discussing the performance of the 150 top UK’s food and drink manufacturers in the current economic climate. The piece examines which companies are rising to the challenge – versus own label and smaller branded companies that are struggling. Anna advices that middling brands have to out-think their bigger rivals, as they can’t outspend them. She adds that planning a riskier but well-targeted campaign is better than spreading a small pot of money thinly. Please find Anna’s full comments below, and for the entire article please click here.

And all good things come in threes: Richard Oldham, director of Innovation comments in the article “It’s not for men” written by Nicolette Allen on 27th of July. Nicolette questions brands such as beer and pizza, that have traditionally been the preserve of men, being targeted at women. Please see Richard’s thoughts below – the complete article can be found here.