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Pernod Ricard’s Irish whiskey brand Jameson has selected Ogilvy as its next global creative partner.
Ogilvy won the competitive pitch against longtime incumbent TBWA and Publicis New York, according to Brendan Buckley, the global marketing director for Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard. The brand used R3 to run the pitch, which Buckley said ran a process that was “incredibly rigorous, time consuming at times, but so worth it in terms of forcing us and the agencies to fully stress test and fully dig into what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Jameson is looking to reinforce its presence in already strong markets like the United States, where it invests its media dollars heavily, while also looking to win in emerging markets like South Africa and several markets in Asia. Ogilvy will helm the brand’s global creative strategy, with the U.K. office taking the lead on the account with a large team from the U.S. backing it, and Jameson will tap Ogilvy teams around the globe for more local executions.
“We are triple delighted and twice as proud for having the opportunity to work for an iconic brand like Jameson and help make it the world’s most shared spirit,” said Antonis Kocheilas, global CEO of Ogilvy Advertising.
TBWA previously held the account for 20 years, and Buckley noted on the relationship: “Big acknowledgments to TBWA as they have been our partners for 20 years plus.”
According to COMvergence, in the U.S. alone, Jameson spent $30 million on measured media, with $13 million of that coming in the form of digital media in 2022. In its 2022 fiscal year, Jameson sold 10.4 million cases across 130 markets worldwide, ranking it among the top four whiskey brands in the world and dominates the Irish whiskey category with 67% of market share.
Investing in the brand truth
Buckley wants Ogilvy to help Jameson focus on its brand truth and its brand essence with its first global campaign for the brand, which will likely roll out by the end of 2023 or early 2024. Buckley views the brand essence as being a serious whiskey that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Buckley told Adweek that its “triple distilled, twice as smooth” tagline is a strong purveyor of its brand truth, which Buckley said is that the whiskey is “made incredibly well.”
“Brands can, in their desire to be consumer-centric … might lose sight of who they are,” Buckley said, adding the brand knows exactly who it is and briefed competing agencies to “clearly demonstrate that the idea could travel across global cultures across global brand life stages.”
Buckley thinks that Jameson has largely succeeded in retaining who they are as a brand, but added that at times “we’ve lost sight of that.” In the pitch, Buckley said they were really looking for an agency that could zero in on that brand truth and essence in the work.
Why Ogilvy
Buckley needed an agency with a true global presence, which the brand certainly gets with Ogilvy. Buckley was also looking for chemistry, which it entrusted in R3 to find it agencies that the brand would work well with.
The Pernod Ricard veteran walked Adweek through the pitch and where Ogilvy eventually made its mark against the other agencies.
Jameson and R3 conducted the pitch in three rounds. The first strategy session asked agencies to interrogate and question the current the strategy. In the second session—the tissue creative session, which also included agencies bringing up their initial cost tables, Ogilvy “didn’t knock it out of the park.”
It was the third session where Buckley and the Jameson team came away impressed with the WPP shop. They had given Ogilvy—and all the agencies—feedback based on the second round, and Ogilvy returned to the final session and showed “their ability to listen and play back to us their interpretation was really strong.” In that final round, Buckley said Ogilvy also delivered some “great strategic thinking and great creative platform.” The combination of the ideas and the ability to adapt made Ogilvy the right fit for Jameson in Buckley’s eyes.
Following the win, Buckley and Ogilvy will go into more development and testing before going into production.
It’s the latest win for Ogilvy, which has been on a new business tear for almost two years now. Dating back to WPP’s collective win of The Coca-Cola Company, Ogilvy has rattled off new accounts with Audi, SC Johnson, H&R Block and Verizon Business. The agency also previously had its foot in the door with Pernod Ricard globally with Absolut and Pernod Ricard USA working on its tequila and mezcal brands that include Olmeca Altos Tequila, Tequila Avión, and Del Maguey.
