Chivas regal
new Positioning:
Elevating the Hustle Generation
Brand Repositioning | Strategy | Consumer & Culture Context
The Challenge
Re-position Chivas to appeal to a younger audience while maintaining luxury status.
The Work
A cultural and audience deep dive into street culture, brand repositioning, market engagement strategy, new creative asset guidelines and brand placement strategy.
The Role I Played
I identified the world of New Luxury as our space to play in, outlined and named our key Headliners & Cultural Connectors we should work with as well as our strategic target – naming them the H.U.S.T.L.E Generation - outlining their key values and codes (Heading Upwards, Unapologetic Success, Street Icons, Transcending Codes, Luxury/Status Brands, Elevate and Give Back.)
One of my key insights into this audience was about the people, whether influencers or the hustle generation, looked to elevate not just themselves but those around them. This became a key hook to drive our comms development and how we should work with and embrace the audience.
As part of the brand shift in brand positioning, I headed up Pernod Ricard’s first Culture Team on a brand, setting the offering up and becoming the go-to resource to help offer insights and support to all Chivas teams as we re-positioned to a more culture first brand. From this team I also developed the brands culture placement strategy, placing the brand in key music video spots like Headie One’s ‘Siberia’ and Julie Adenuga’s Top 5 Show.
As we moved into new territory, I brought in new creatives and agencies to work with to develop a complete change and more attitudinal style to our content, from renowned culture photographer Ewen Spencer to agencies I Love Dust, Thumbstoppers and Ear to the Ground.
The Impact
First activations and assets of the strategy were live in summer 21, with Chivas beginning to gain reach and positive levels of engagement with the new target audience.
Balmain collab launched in October 2021, succeeding initial launch expectations.
“I worked very closely with Warren at Chivas and he is a fantastic, intuitive and strategic marketer. He knows how to seamlessly tie in cultural insights, consumer needs and brand truths into strategy that not only will be relevant now but how it continues to win for the next few years. Importantly, as he is worked both agency and client side – he understands what it takes to sell-in this strategy to key stakeholders and get it happening!”
Ary Ganeshalingam, CMO, Change Please (Worked together at Chivas)