First Choice Liquor

Russell Downing, Head of Marketing

CHE Proximity *Lead Agency

Nathan Rogers, Senior Planner

Christmas represents the biggest sales period of the year for the liquor retail industry. But for Christmas 2016, Aussies would be planning to spend less than the previous silly season for the first time since the GFC in 2008; creating a volatile and unpredictable retail forecast. The category response was a blunt force tactic of a massive increase in media expenditure, with our biggest competitor Dan Murphy’s outspending us by a factor of 31:1. With a need to optimize marketing spend and challenges with brand awareness; we elected to play it smart. We utilized traditional challenger strategies to disrupt the category by focusing on a true customer insight – that for most Aussies, Christmas wasn’t just a day, but a month-long siege. So, for Christmas 2016, First Choice Liquor changed the date of Christmas. The result? We turned 1% share of voice into growth that was 7-times greater than the category.