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N E W S • Archive for December, 2008

Sobieski Vodka Has Anything But A Sob Story

BRANDWEEK | DECEMBER 1ST, 2008

How one Polish vodka brand joked its way into Americans’ hearts and minds by serving the truth straight up in an advertising campaign.

Sorry, Russia. Vodka originated in Poland. That’s just one sobering fact people learned from Sobieski’s “Truth in Vodka” advertising campaign. The effort originally launched in the U.S. a little over one year ago to introduce the nice-priced premium spirit to the trade market.

And, apparently, it worked. Even though the vodka shelf is saturated with brands running the price gamut from cheap to steep and new SKUs seem to debut daily, Sobieski has had the most successful liquor launch in the U.S., with sales of 200,000 cases even before one year was up. sbsk_mp_crop_2_c-t_insitu_lores

Created by New York advertising agency Meter Industries, the “Truth” work pointed out that paying through the nose for what’s in the bottle is pointless. Rather than ante up a $40-50 premium to support marketing gimmicks and notice-me packaging, Sobieski slyly suggested that shoppers focus on a bottle’s contents, which in its case is Poland’s No. 1 premium vodka and one of the fastest-growing international spirits. Sobieski, incidentally, sells for $10.99 per 750 ml bottle because the price isn’t inflated by these irrelevant marketing expenditures.

“We designed a bottle to suit the spirit inside,” one Sobieski ad reads. “Notice the lack of la-di-da.”
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