EX-COORS MARKETER ANDY ENGLAND TAKES BEER PLAYBOOK TO BOOZE—‘THE WORLD’S MOST REFRESHING VODKA’

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The moves come as Phillps tries to break through in the crowded and cluttered vodka category, which of late has been led by Tito’s. When it comes to the vodka liquid itself, there is not a ton of difference between individual brands. Up until 2020, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau officially defined vodka as “without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color,” as England points out on the podcast.

He compares it to the light beer category, where Bud Light, Coors Light and Miller Lite are often criticized as all tasting the same. “I’ve worked in a space where you’ve got big brands, lots of consumption and small differences,” he says. “My view is small differences can make a difference and identity really matters.” So with UV, Phillips wants to craft an identity that “we can actually own and be unique in the space,” he says.

On the podcast, England also talks about how Phillips is rebranding its Revel Stoke flavored whiskey brand with an irreverent approach that targets what he calls “Zillennials”—men ages 21-34. New flavors include  “Nutcrusher Peanut Butter,” “Hotbox Cinnamon,” “SonofaPeach” and “Lei’d Roasted Pineapple.” 

The crude names veer from the direction of the beer industry, which has taken pains to do more gender-neutral marketing and distance itself from its beer babe past. “It’s not that we want to be exclusive of females, but I will say I think people worry too much [about] being inclusive with every brand,” England says.

He points to Phillips’ Prairie Organic Spirits brand, whose new campaign targets what it calls “Ecopolitans,” whom England describes as thirtysomething females who are “consumed with the environment.”

“I don’t sit around worrying about whether talking to Ecopolitans upsets 50-year-old men, I don’t care. And in the same way, if talking to Zillennials in a language that is meaningful to them is upsetting to 40-year-old women, I don’t care about that either.”

“George Steinbrenner wrote the book on this,” he adds, referencing the former New York Yankees owner. “His whole argument was you’ve got to appeal to your target audience and you need them to love you and if everybody else hates, you, I don’t care. And I think that is the exact right attitude to have.”

E.J. Schultz writes for Crain’s sister publication Ad Age.