Tim Palmer Guinness UDV intends to cut a swathe through the premium packaged spirits market with a £5m launch budget for its latest brand, Gordon's Edge. The global spirits sector leader has been testing the product for several months and has given the green light for its phased roll out from Monday (May 27). In June it will be available in cash and carries, specialists and independents and the brand will go into the multiple grocers in August in time for the start of an advertising blitz for the brand. Guinness UDV is spending £3.5m on the campaign that begins with TV and is followed up with cinema and style press ads. Sampling and trial activities will account for the bulk of the remaining £1.5m and the company is hoping to get 200,000 people to try it this year. The campaign also includes sponsorship links with cultural events, such as the Edinburgh Festival and the Birmingham Arts Festival Edge comes in two variants, lemon and lime, and carries the Gordon's gin branding, but it is not intended as a PPS version of gin and tonic. Innovation commercialisation manager Allen Gibbons emphasised: "There is no tonic in this and we want to attract people who don't drink gin The effect of Edge on the g&t market will be minimal because the drinking occasions will be different." He is targeting the brand at the slightly older age group of 25 to 34-year-olds. "PPSs are not as big a part of their repertoires because they know what they like and a lot of products in the sector do not deliver what they want. "We think this is an untapped opportunity to broaden the whole of the category. Gibbons said: "The PPS market is continuing to mature. We intend to be in it for the long term and will build brands and the category." Single 275ml bottles (rsp £1.65) will be launched first and followed at the end of June with four packs (£5.99). {{DRINKS }}

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