William Grant & Sons has launched the second World Cucumber Day campaign for gin brand Hendrick’s in global travel retail. The initiative culminates on 14 June with the celebration of the signature garnish.
For global travel retail Hendrick’s has created its own travelling ‘Cucumber Curiositarium’. This includes a selection of “individual yet curious cucumber specimens uncovered by expert cucumber catchers” that are presented in display jars at airports around the world. Jars comprise: ‘The World’s Most Adored Cucumber’ (Specimen No 1); ‘The Invisible Cucumber’ (Specimen No 3); ‘The Sea Cucumber’ (Specimen No 4); and the ‘Explorer Cucumber’ (Specimen No 6).
Localised ‘Curiositariums’ have been created for specific airports, such as ‘The Dam Cucumber’ (Specimen No 7) for Amsterdam Schiphol, and ‘The Tubular Cucumber’ (Specimen No 9) for Melbourne and Sydney.
“Our World Cucumber Day mission is to invite consumers into the Hendrick’s brand world and to reaffirm ownership of the signature cucumber serve,” said William Grant & Sons Global Travel Retail Head of Marketing Ifan Jenkins. “We want to disrupt passengers as they travel through the airports and brighten up their day with some unexpected fun moments.
“Our primary targets for this campaign are curious consumers who delight in the unusual. We are also expecting to recruit new consumers at scale and engage a broader audience with our unique brand world and exquisite liquid.”
This year’s campaign started at Amsterdam Schiphol during March. In the weeks leading up to ‘the big day’ on 14 June activations will take place with retailers at key airports around the world including Auckland, Melbourne and Perth, Changi, Barcelona and Madrid, London Gatwick, Dubai, Frankfurt and Hamburg, Taiwan Taoyuan, and Brussels. Curious cucumbers will also take a cruise on three Carnival ships with Heinemann in May and June.
Activation mechanics will vary by airport location but will include a number of ‘unusual’ and ‘peculiar’ GWP items such as specially designed Curiositarium carry cases, fans, playing cards and neck tags.
Last year’s first World Cucumber Day campaign ran in 37 airports, reaching 70 million passengers in ten weeks.
Jenkins continued: “This year we are activating in more airports with greater scale than before. The travel retail channel is a global stage for building brand equity and activations such as this are the perfect way to both create personality for William Grant’s disruptive brands such as Hendrick’s and engage directly with passengers through unique retail experiences.
“We anticipate that this year’s World Cucumber Day campaign will be even more successful than last year, both for us and our retail partners. Along with tailored cucumber specimens for specific airport locations, we also have a dedicated microsite this year to further delight, entertain and inform our curious consumers.”
