Distell Travel Retail has partnered with The Moodie Davitt Report in a spectacular makeover of our homepage as a timely reminder of the plight of the African elephant, which is still regularly poached for ivory.
The African elephant, which is so associated with Distell-owned African cream liqueur Amarula, has been at serious threat of extinction for decades. Amarula is stepping up its efforts to increase global awareness of the elephant conservation cause.
“The elephant has been an integral part of our brand DNA since we started in 1983 and the reason why it was chosen was because the elephant is iconic with Africa, and South Africa particularly,” Distell Global Travel Retail Head of Marketing Rachel Hawes told The Moodie Davitt Report.
“In the late 1990s, it became apparent that the elephant was suffering from over poaching and that has accelerated over the years. We set up the Amarula Trust in 2002. It came about because that iconic African elephant is on our packaging and if we lose the African elephant then we lose our identity as a brand.”
The Amarula Trust has since reached out to WildlifeDirect and its CEO Paula Kahumbu in order to support the charity’s work and to improve awareness among Amarula’s global audience of elephant conservation and WildlifeDirect’s work.
Over the years, Distell has run several impactful campaigns to underline the urgency of the issue. On one occasion, the company even introduced a bottle of Amarula that didn’t feature the iconic elephant on the bottle – to make customers realise the spectre of living in an African elephant-free world. Proceeds from these bottles supported the work of the Amarula Trust.
Distell also created a giant ice sculpture of an elephant, which was then left to melt in the sun as a symbol of the potential disappearance of this magnificent species.
As reported, Distell is currently midway through a partnership with Gebr Heinemann, which has seen the liquor company raise awareness of and funds for elephant conservation with passengers passing through Frankfurt Airport.
Distell is planning to step up its support for elephant conservation in key strategic airports in March and April of next year Global Travel Retail Managing Director Luke Maga added.
“We’ll see what we can do from an activation perspective within the duty free space; that’s something that we’ve really been working quite hard on over the last six to nine months. We have got lots of nice plans,” Maga said.
“We really want to bring Africa and the brand to life and also make a stand for something. I’m really excited with what we’re going to bring to market because Amarula is going to be taking a huge step-change in the future, especially around travel retail with what we have up our sleeves.”
Maga continued: “Amarula will be Distell’s number one pillar heading forward. We have strong growth aspirations for the next five years and the business is supportive of these ambitions and aspirations. Travel retail has been highlighted as a key strategic business unit and somewhere we can grow brands and showcase them on a global stage, which I think is really exciting for Distell and Amarula.”