The PARTY Spirit

Guests happily raised a toast. Sponsored by Dewar’s,the party was hosted by fashion designer Namrata Joshipura and lawyer Vivek Sood.

Only a few days before,Absolut Vodka hosted an event in Delhi to show art installations by artist Raul Chandra and designer Nida Mehmood,the first in a new series called “Bioscope”. A similar crowd trooped in. Hip,arty,edgy. In Mumbai,17 works from Absolut Vodka’s famous 30-year-old art collection were displayed at a Colaba gallery,with a party thrown in. Alongside works by Andy Warhol and Rosemarie Trockel was Subodh Gupta’s 4-foot tall Absolut bottle made from Indian kitchen utensils.

Single-malt brand Glenfiddich,a subsidiary of the Scottish William Grant & Sons,was one of the hosts when couturier JJ Valaya made his debut as a fine art photographer recently.

Social diaries in urban India are getting crowded with events sponsored by alcohol brands,which support art and culture with big money and new ideas. The celebration of art or fashion,polo,cricket,or music,now combines a predictable guest list of well-to-do,global local people and the host is often a liquor brand.

Sample some. The recent three-day Bacardi NH7 Weekender in Pune,brought together a mix of Indian and international music acts,including Asian Dub Foundation,Indian Ocean and Pentagram. Eristoff hosted the Invasion music festival,which brought The Prodigy for the first time to India. Johnnie Walker Gold Label sponsored a polo tournament in Delhi. Grey Goose not only invests in luxury parties and lounges at fashion weeks,but has also twice sponsored Mumbai’s Lakme Fashion Week. Last year,it started Grey Goose journeys,the first of which took designers Gauri and Nainika Karan on a four-city fashion tour. Blender’s Pride also takes theme-based fashion shows to small and big cities. Kingfisher hosts IPL parties; while Royal Challenge,which tweaked its name to christen the IPL cricket team Royal Challengers Bangalore,spun a variety of sport and social events around it last year.

If the New Page 3 is about luxury,fashion,drink and fine food,then booze is certainly a celebrity of our times. Through these high-profile dos,Indian and global liquor companies have made inroads into consumer minds. And it is much better than clever surrogate advertising. As Aparna Batra,marketing director,Indian subcontinent,William Grant & Sons,says,“It is innovative under-the-line customer engagement,well within what is allowed by the Indian government.”

The liquor industry functions in a highly regulated environment in India. All alcohol advertisements were banned by the government in 2000. Surrogate and socially responsible advertising was allowed,but as time would prove,much of it made a mockery of the ban — 8 PM Whisky and Aristocrat Whisky were names given to apple juices,Bagpiper sold sodas,Hayward’s 5000 Beer dart kits and Gilbey’s Green Label Whisky water. Subsequently,stringent guidelines were put in place. Liquor brands sobered up. They re-entered the market by tapping the good life. No one did it better than Vijay Mallya,chairperson of United Breweries Limited,who became known as the King of Good Times — considered one of the best strategies in the brewery business.

Others hired marketing wizards to tap into brand history and roots. As Batra says,“It was but natural to support art as Peter Gordon,chairperson of William Grant & Sons,is a serious art collector.” Glenfiddich not only supports art events but has in the last decade run an artist-in-residency programme at the Glenfiddich Distillery in Scotland.

Between Glenfiddich and Balvenie,their other “handcrafted malt”,the William Grant brand brought advocacy and tasting sessions to India,combining them with Tarun Tahiliani’s couture or a retrospective of Rina Dhaka’s work. Batra emphasises that they aren’t just looking for corporates or successful designers who can lure large numbers,they are equally happy associating with people who can introduce the brand to small groups of malt lovers.

For years,India was a half-virgin liquor market. Those who could afford alcohol consumed it,more privately than publicly. If you loved your drink openly,you ran the risk of being termed “fashionable,reckless and party-obsessed”,not the best label to wear then. The glamour industry smoked and boozed freely; the serious and artistic “tasted” malts with restraint and women in chiffons and pearls sipped wine.

Now the moral code that termed drinking a “bad habit” has been flooded away. It’s become almost unfashionable not to drink. Liquor events are not seen as boozing,they are seen as worthy social platforms. “I wanted to be associated with it because it is not another Page 3 event; instead it brought interesting and important information on Scotch whisky,” says Joshipura,who co-hosted the Dewar’s event.

The brands make sure they leave consumers informed and not just titillated. The scene is already crowded,driven as it is by celeb-soaked events and the need for sponsorships. To compete,every company must come up with innovative ideas. Many are redirecting funds from other corporate areas to marketing as this is where the big promise lies. Last year,United Spirits Limited,India’s most profitable liquor company which owns Royal Challenge,launched the Google YouTube channel for IPL to enhance brand visibility.

Alcohol consumption trends suggest that the marketing strategies have worked. Indians consumed nearly 220 million cases of beer and 60 million cases of whisky and other spirits in 2005-06,according to an Assocham study. Consumption grew by nearly 10 per cent in 2006-07 to reach over 240 million cases of beer and about 70 million cases of whisky and other spirits (by 2008,92 million whisky cases had been sold).

The spirits market grew by 8.5 per cent in 2010,according to market research firm International Wine and Spirits Research. Import of single-malt Scotch,which is actually the least growing segment,more than doubled in the first half of 2010,according to the Scotch Whisky Association. Moet Hennessy’s Glenmorangie,Pernod Ricard’s Glenlivet and William Grant & Son’s Glenfiddich account for two-thirds of the market for single malts in India.

“It is definitely about consumer engagement and our research points to the fact that this is working,” says Arvind Krishnan,marketing director of Bacardi India Pvt Ltd. “The Indian market has more promise than even the US,” says Stephen Marshall,adding that Indians are refined consumers of alcohol.

“Even till a few years ago,the question I would be asked is what’s the price of the bottle. Today I am asked what foods can be paired with Scotch,” he says. Batra agrees. “It is a mature market,unlike other emerging markets where people grapple with fundamentals. Here,customers know what a single malt is and how it is distilled,” she says.

Liquor majors are slicing up the cultural market to cast a wider net. “Each brand has a clearly defined space,based on its core values and brand promise,” says Krishnan. He explains why Dewar’s is associated with Dewarists,a platform that celebrates individuals and artists who have followed their passion,Bacardi with music and Grey Goose with luxury. “Each brand manager maps this space and works towards creating associations through unique experiences for the consumer.”

While cynics say fashion,art and cricket parties would be insufferable without booze-induced affability,most believe that these innovations have spurred India’s partying republic. Art,which was considered intellectually intimidating,has literally uncorked the bubbly,opening itself up for more democratic viewing and consumption.

Alcohol companies haven’t just brought in the moolah for music and art where it was badly needed but also nudged cultural cross-pollination,giving rise to new,creative collectives. People who converge at such events may not be necessarily like-minded,but once they start sharing a drink or few,they begin to pool ideas. “Alcohol sponsors have helped host events of a certain calibre and class,which within restaurant budgets would not have been possible,” says AD Singh,who owns Olive Bar and Kitchen restaurants in Mumbai and Delhi and is a pioneer in promoting fine cuisine evenings with well-chosen music,wine and fashion. A number of socialites now take pride in intimately knowing the body and texture of wines,the age of whiskies,the froth of beers,and how to pair drinks with the right cuisine.

While liquor giants are clear they are not promoting bad drinking habits,not everyone is saying cheers. “Surely,it is the most clever form of advertising in recent times but it is not a plain promotional activity,it is also direct sales,” says restaurateur Harmeet Bajaj who co-owns Delhi’s Smoke House Grill. “It inculcates the cult of alcoholism. It may inspire the sophisticated and the artistic but it also seduces gatecrashers who pile into events only because of the booze,” says Bajaj.

The trend will hold,say experts,as may Bajaj’s doubts. Unlike brews,markets mature but seldom get distilled.