11,666 visitors to Laphroaig’s cellar

The live online tasting that was broadcast from Laproaig’s cellars in Islay last week attracted 11,666 viewers from 79 different countries ranging from Bhutan to Botswana and Puerto Rico to Peru. This number makes it the largest such tasting ever conducted, beating last year’s total of 7,915.

The event represented a major step forward for Laphroaig. The Beam Global-owned brand enjoys an exceptional level of consumer loyalty – as epitomised by the Friends of Laphroaig marketing program – and the company is leveraging these relationships through a highly innovative and creative online presence. The brand cleverly enables consumers to take ownership of the brand, and feel personally connected to it. Allowing consumers an exclusive insight into the cellar was an interesting strategy to reinforce that connection. Last week’s event was the first time that a tasting has been broadcast live from the distillery – last year’s was broadcast from London.

During the tasting five expressions of the brand were discussed by master blender Robert Hicks, distillery manager John Campbell and renowned French whisky journalist Martine Nouet. In order to make the broadcast as interactive as possible viewers watching at home were invited to submit questions to the panel, with several thousand emailing in during the 45 minute programme.

“We want to be at the cutting edge of the single malt category,” says Beam Global Scotch brand director Micheal Cockram. “The product will remain as traditional as ever, but the way that we communicate with consumers won’t.” Laphroaig has already scored a major marketing coup with its Friends strategy, whereby over 300,000 consumers in 160 countries have been given a plot of land near to the distillery. Over 50% of new consumers are drawn to the brand by word of mouth, so establishing a strong bond with drinkers is crucial to its continued success.

Campbell comments: “It makes sense for us to treat our loyal consumers properly, and to involve them as much as possible.”

With 11,666 computers logged on to the webcast, Beam estimates that in total over 20,000 may have been watching. This figure is particularly impressive given the unfortunate timing of the event. The tasting had long been planned to take place last Wednesday evening, which happened to coincide with Sweden’s crunch Euro 2008 match against Russia. The peaty, smoky whiskies of Islay boast a strong following throughout Scandinavia and Sweden is a particularly important market for Laphroaig – so it seems safe to assume that were it not for the football then an even higher number of consumers would have tuned in.

Cockram says that the company will be running the event again next year, though he has promised that – true to the pioneering spirit of Laphroaig’s online activity – it will be updated accordingly. Initial ideas include producing a live tasting in conjunction with sister brand Maker’s Mark, and distributing tasting packs to consumers in advance to enable them to taste the whiskies at the same time as the experts.

Ben Grant, 25/06/08