Feature: Brand profile: Alizé comes of age

Alizé may not be a household name but it is a well-known brand within the urban music scene and a popular choice with young clubbers. City club-goers enjoy the premium spirit either straight over ice or in a wide range of cocktails – the most popular of which is an Alizé Bellini (mixed with champagne).

Alizé was created when a brandy maker in Cognac fell in love with and married a jam maker and they combined their knowledge of fruits and cognac to create Alizé – a mix of premium Alizé VS cognac with extracts of fruit.

Introduced initially in the US, Alizé was quickly adopted by the R ‘n’ B and hip hop community and can subsequently lay claim to name checks in an astounding number of songs, including Notorious BIG’s Juicy, Jay Z’s Can I get a…, and Usher’s Bad Girl, among others.

Tightly controlled niche marketing of the brand has kept it something of a secret only known to a true core consumer base of 25- to 35-year-old clubbers, with promotional activity focused on music-based sponsorships, events and on-trade activity. But this month, the brand “comes of age” and its owner, J Wray & Nephew, is marking its 21st birthday by investing a six-figure sum in a major integrated campaign, Alizé Remixed, which represents its largest single investment in the UK market to date.

The initiative will see the brand partnering up with MTV and some of the biggest DJ names on the international music scene with an experiential tour, which will be pre-promoted through TV, radio, national and regional press and online media.

Pre-promoted across nine MTV channels, the campaign will also partner up with Kiss FM and Galaxy Radio whose DJs, Steve Sutherland and Shortee Blitz, will be Alizé Remixed ambassadors.

Pivotal to the campaign will be a competition to find the next top DJ talent. Participants will be asked to create a 10-minute mix of their favourite party tracks from the past 21 years which they will be able to upload onto a dedicated website, www.alizeremixed.com. Winners will receive Ł1,000 cash and the chance to hit the turntables at one of the Alizé Remixed gigs alongside DJ legends including Jazzy Jeff, Jazzy B and Tim Westwood.

The Alizé Remixed tour will visit five key city centres in the UK kicking off at The Custard Factory in Birmingham on April 24 and culminating at London’s SeOne on October 25. Other venues will be Leeds in June, Manchester in August and Bristol in September.

The tour will also be promoted through press ads in urban consumer titles such as Hip-Hop Connection and RWD and regional PR campaigns will generate exposure in local media at each of the five key city centres.

“With its roots firmly in R ‘n’ B and hip hop, Alizé is a legendary spirit on the music scene so to mark its 21st birthday we wanted to create a campaign that recognised this,” commented brand manager Karen Lucking. “The fact that so many of the world’s great DJs are supporting this campaign is testament to the brand’s genuine music heritage. But it is also remains a highly targeted campaign with all media support tightly focused on reaching Alizé’s urban consumer base, which is growing in the UK market.”

In many ways, Alizé has been clever in protecting itself from the mainstream, closely guarding its priceless “cool” image. Up-weighting marketing support this year will undoubtedly raise the brand’s profile among a broader audience. But by carefully controlling media partners to the likes of MTV and Kiss FM, and by bringing on board brand ambassadors who are legendary across the international music scene, it looks set to only enhance its image.