Bass boosts Reef with a £9m marketing drive

TV ad marks the start of a campaign to push Reef into top three

Bass Brewers has underlined its commitment to its still Reef brand by announcing a significant increase in marketing spend over the next 12 months.

A new £1m Reef TV advertisement, earmarked for release at the end of the month, represents the first instalment of a major £9m marketing drive aimed at clinching the number three position behind Bacardi Breezer and Smirnoff Ice at the top end of the flavoured alcoholic beverage (FAB) sector.

Earlier this year, Bass Brewers announced it was relaxing its support for its Vodka Hooch brand and was instead switching its focus to Reef as its flagship FAB brand.

The 30 second commercial, set in a night club in Barcelona, uses a special "slit" technique which allows the female characters to swirl to their desired location in an effort to emphasise the brand's new bottle design.

Brand marketing manager Des Johnston said: "Year-on-year sales are growing by approximately 190 per cent in the on-trade and the challenge is to keep the momentum.

"The fight is on for third place against WKD and Archers Aqua. We are not trying to be number one just yet, but we have a great chance to get the number three slot because we are injecting more money and spending more on advertising.

"We switched a £5m investment away from Hooch towards Reef and we will be increasing this spend to £9m for 2002, an investment just slightly behind Grolsch."

The advert will be aired from Friday November 30 in a bid to increase sales in the run-up to Christmas and around the party season.

Bass Brewers has also reminded publicans that beer is for Christmas not just for life and urged them not to take beer for granted during the festive period.

According to research by the company, 62 per cent of drinks sales during the festive period are from the beer category, yet more often than not, beer does not receive 62 per cent of the focus.

Category marketing controller at Bass Brewers, Neale Lewis, said: "It is paramount licensees embrace the highest standards of quality and skills, otherwise their competitors will profit at their expense. At 62 per cent, the beer market represents a huge percentage of total Christmas sales, so it is a category not to be ignored at this time of year."