• by Joan Voight , January 5, 2011

Vodka brands are tapping a diverse cast of endorsers as the industry fights to keep its lead as the most popular liquor sold in the United States. Pushed aside are old marketing pitches about a brand's proud Russian heritage and treasured traditions. Now it is about the party culture, fame and sharing.

Wódka
Perhaps the most rebellious brand is the new Wódka Vodka, which thumbs its nose at the notion that high-end vodka has to be pricey. At about $10 for a 750 ml bottle, the one-year-old Polish rye vodka nabbed a prestigious 90 rating (out of 100) from the Beverage Testing Institute in November. It is distributed in 20 states and five countries, and its advertising tends to be as frugal as its product. Billboards are running in New York, Los Angeles and Florida and will expand to Texas later in 2011. Most show straight product shots; some in New York are localized with the headline, "Hamptons Quality, Newark Pricing" and an offbeat photo of Wass Stevens, doorman at hip New York nightclub Avenue.

The brand's fall PR effort (basic theme: good vodka for cheap) caught bloggers' fancy and the resulting online buzz prompted articles in the mainstream press, including The Wall Street Journal.

The brand's real personality resides on its irreverent Web site, welovewodka.com, which is built around Stevens, dubbed Mr. W and Farmer Bob, the humorous alter ego of Wódka's marketing chief Robert Parr. Those personalities will grow in the spring and summer of 2011, when Farmer Bob starts tweeting and Mr. W is the subject of parody videos on YouTube, says Brian Gordon, managing partner at MMG, Wódka's marketing agency.

"The first step was to build credibility as a premium product despite the low cost," says Gordon. After the company has built up its legitimacy, it will dive deeper into social media, "where the message can percolate."

Don't expect the witty, homemade tone of the marketing to get tarted up any time soon. Much like the Target brand in the retail world, "cheap chic is the right position for us," says Gordon. And that means no celebrities and no elaborate mixology. "Brands take that stuff way too seriously," he scoffs.

Smirnoff
Smirnoff and Cîroc, both Diageo brands, have an entirely different take on glamour and social media.

Working with JWT, Smirnoff coordinated a massive global party event in fall 2010, The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project. About 20,000 people attended elaborately staged branded parties on Nov. 27 in 14 countries: Great Britain, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Lebanon, Canada, Poland, Thailand, Venezuela, the United States, Argentina, Germany, India and Ireland.

The idea was to pair up wildly different cities (think Dublin and Buenos Aires) that would swap local party ideas. DJs or other nightlife celebrities from each city, served as curators who planned and promoted the parties using the ideas from the sister city. Every step of the process was covered on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs.

It all started in September, when Smirnoff set up huge outdoor display crates in the 14 cities to announce the program. Smirnoff asked online fans and followers to tell the brand what made their city's nightlife unique. Answers, ranging from "dancing in flip-flops on the beach," to "late night falafels," were placed in the crates. Then the brand posted Facebook updates asking people which city they'd like to exchange crates with.

Videos showing the crates being filled and get-togethers to celebrate the crates' departure were posted on YouTube. The announcement of the city pairings, the arrival of the crates and the activities of the curators were also intimately covered online and shared among users.

As a media partner, MTV provided TV and Web coverage of the planning and final parties. AKQA and DEI Worldwide were hired to help with the digital elements.

The "transmedia" initiative "was a simple 140-character idea with a massively complex execution," says Matt MacDonald, executive creative director at JWT New York. The campaign's key goal was to give consumers some compelling content to pass around and "the crate served as our visual metaphor," he says. From that viewpoint, the actual parties were only one step in the process. Within six days after the last guest went home, Smirnoff posted snippets filmed at the parties on Facebook. TV ads showing photos taken by partygoers are planned for early January. MTV is creating a half-hour documentary covering the parties, slated to air in early 2011.

Nate Elliott, Forrester Research interactive marketing analyst, says the ambitious effort shows how a clear social media strategy can "drive engagement with a brand across multiple regions and interactive channels. Smirnoff showed fans that following the brand online will connect them with like-minded folks across the globe." But did the campaign result in a bigger community of Smirnoff fans, particularly on Facebook? Results seem to be mixed. By Dec. 15 the U.S. Facebook page had about 248,000 "likes" and the worldwide page had about 152,000 "likes."

Cîroc
While Wódka is the $10 rebel, Cîroc Vodka is going for the luxury end, with a $30 price tag for 750 ml and a high-profile face. Sean "Diddy" Combs and Cîroc have had a strategic alliance since 2007, splitting profits 50/50 between them. Diddy's job is to oversee brand management, so it's no surprise that the hip-hop mogul shows up in a lot of the marketing. It's been working: Diageo says sales of Cîroc, which is made from grapes rather than grain or potatoes, grew 552 percent from 2007 to 2010.

In its latest effort, the brand was positioned as the "Official Vodka of New Year's Eve," and sponsored red-carpet telecasts at award shows. It also expanded its Holiday Safe Driver initiative. For the last two years, Diddy, Cîroc and E! Entertainment teamed with the NYC Department of Transportation to laud designated drivers and offer New Yorkers free rides for after-holiday parties. This year, a tuxedo-clad Diddy hung out at high-traffic areas in three New York boroughs in early December. He and his handlers distributed thousands of prepaid $25 debit cards that could only be used for public transportation and taxis until Jan 2. Cîroc also ran "Drive Safe" spots on TV, on in-taxi TV and on a Times Square billboard.

Online, the company used Facebook to drum up entrants for a contest to select New Year's Eve party correspondents. Fans were asked to submit videos of themselves and winners got to serve as E! TV reporters at celeb-hosted Cîroc New Year's parties in Las Vegas, Vail, Chicago, New York and Miami. Diddy, by the way, was host of the Las Vegas bash.