Southern Comfort’s “SoCo” bar

A “SoCo” bar call is the core proposition behind Southern Comfort’s £3 million investment in media and advertising.

A “SoCo” bar call is the core proposition behind Southern Comfort’s £3 million investment in media and advertising. The abbreviation emerged among consumers in the US (the brand’s largest market), and plays a major part in its new UK campaign.

Southern Comfort recently launched new creative material, accompanied by a cinema advert that emphasises the bar call. The campaign primarily targets the on-trade in the UK, where the Brown-Forman brand is ranked seventh by brand value. (Southern Comfort is currently enjoying its sixth year of consecutive growth in the UK). The brand will continue to encourage consumer trials in on-trade venues, as well as promoting Southern Comfort cocktails.

Southern Comfort’s association with the Big Chill music festival is set to continue this August. Its bartender training initiatives, which have proven very successful in the past, will also carry on this year. Off-trade activity includes promoting the brand with a wider variety of mixers, as well as an extensive sampling campaign.

The campaign aims to widen the appeal of the drink, in a bid to gain the loyalty of older consumers.

A new online strategy, as well as a university brand ambassador programme, will round off the campaign. Could Southern Comfort’s “SoCo” brand call become like Jack Daniel’s JD? Brown Forman certainly hopes so.