The world’s big companies are still chasing ’emerging markets’ despite such markets’ tendency to burst into flames from time to time.
Africa is the latest port of call, particularly for what we used to call ‘the beerage.’ We’ve had Guinness producing a big-budget African film recently and now Guinness owner Diageo is trying the same trick for Smirnoff Double Black.
This is interesting in itself as Double Black is a strong, ‘premium’ offering, therefore pricey. But that’s what Africans want or so Diageo seems to think. One variant comes with guarana, usually found in energy drinks, just in case the lads need a bit more stimulation. Could you sell this in Europe?
Anyway, 72andSunnny in Amsterdam has been enlisted to launch these brews and a pretty good job it makes of it.
The marketing proposition makes you a bit uneasy though.
Way back in the seventies, when I was Dorland’s “Agency Fireman” (It’s all in Confessions of a Mad Man) I spent 7 weeks in South America and the Caribbean shooting a McVities campaign. I always remember a giant billboard in Port of Spain, Trinidad, featuring a huge pumped up black arm holding a Guinness bottle. The headline read… “IT GIVE YOU PLENTY JACK – MAN!” I’ve been drinking it ever since.
Cheers/George “AdScam” Parker