Diageo is ploughing £1.6m into a summer campaign to encourage consumers to create more spirit-plus-mixer drinks, and investing a further £50,000 in the launch of a half-size bottle of Pimm's.

The drinks giant said it was launching Bring Home the Spirit of Summer next month specifically to drive off-trade sales of its core summer spirits range, which includes Archers, Smirnoff, Pimm's, Gordon's and Morgan's Spiced Rum.

It was replacing last year's Refreshing Tastes for Long Summer Days message because it wanted something more "dynamic", it said.

As well as outdoor and print advertising, PoS will be used for the first time to cross-merchandise the brands in the fresh produce aisles.

The summer was a good time to attract new consumers, said Russell Jones, director of category marketing at Diageo. "Summer is important for the spirits category in the off-trade and we want to help retailers maximise sales by providing a campaign to drive purchase and encourage consumers to create and try long mixed spirits drinks at home," he said.

"Promotional activity is hugely important, as nearly 450,000 consumers who bought spirits last summer were new to the category."

Diageo is combining the campaign with the launch of a 35cl bottle of Pimm's into cash & carry and convenience outlets.

With an rsp of £7.49, the price point was more appropriate for the smaller store sector than that of its existing 70cl and 1-litre ­variants.

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