• by Aaron Baar , August 11, 2008

Brown-Forman's Southern Comfort is moving away from kaleidoscopic imagery of booze, glasses and limes to a more social approach in new television advertising scheduled to break this fall.

The ads, which are already running online as part of the brand's sponsorship of the SoCo Music Experience, show twentysomethings gathering in a bar for a night of fun. As the action progresses--from arrival to socializing to a final toast--freeze-frame shots are intended to depict pictures taken for memories of the special event.

"It's a bunch of people really connecting and having fun," Ken Rose, SoCo's U.S. brand director, tells Marketing Daily. As for the strategy shift: "You can't keep running the same ad time and time again."

However, the company continues to focus on the popular SoCo and Lime mixture, which has been a feature of its previous advertising. The only dialogue heard in the spot is a woman ordering a round of the drink, and the spot ends with the Southern Comfort logo turned so that only "So Co" is visible, and adds the words "& Lime."

"It's a drink that was started by consumers," Rose says. "Using advertising behind it seemed like a natural way to get the word out there, rather than wait for it to grow organically."

Focusing on the drink in the television spots will also help the drink gain popularity in overseas markets--where the commercial will also run--as well, Rose says.

While the ads have been running online on sites like Heavy.com and NBCRewind, television is still the king of all media when it comes to reach and exposure, Rose says. "Our core focus is 21- to-29-year-olds, and digital is where you reach them because that's where they are. But TV is still that ubiquitous thing that everybody watches."