Bushmills enjoying life under Diageo
You know you've made it when you get yourself on a banknote. Just imagine how many hands your picture will pass through in the course of a day. But unless you're the Queen it seems to help if you've been dead a couple of hundred years.
The latest to earn the privilege, though, is very much alive - in fact, after 400 years, it's healthier than ever. Since last month, the Old Bushmills Distillery has decorated the Bank of Ireland's Northern Ireland banknotes, a highlight of the whiskey's 400th anniversary celebrations which you'll probably notice throughout this year.
At the distillery itself, in the village of Bushmills, County Antrim, there's a bit of a buzz these days, and it's not just that birthday feeling. After a number of quiet years for the brand, Bushmills is growing again in the GB on-trade. It's 15 per cent up in the past year - way ahead of the Irish whiskey market as a whole - four per cent.
This anniversary year is also seeing a £1.4m investment in the brand, including its first ever global advertising campaign and the launch of a limited-edition Bushmills 1608 blend.
The renewed success of what has always been a solid back-bar performer in Britain's pubs is rooted in a twist of the monopoly laws. Pernod Ricard, which acquired Bushmills as part of the Irish Distillers portfolio, was forced to part with it when it absorbed the Allied Domecq spirits business in 2005.
In truth, Pernod Ricard's focus had always been on the bigger-selling Irish whiskey Jameson and Bushmills was under-performing as a result.
Now part of Diageo, the latent potential of the brand is being realised. The Guinness sales force has taken responsibility for increasing on-trade distribution of Bushmills Original - perhaps better known to established licensees as 'Bushmills Red' - and, according to senior brand manager Hilary Maguire, has found it "an easy sell".
"We hit distribution targets for the year in the first quarter," she says.
Among consumers, however, she admits that awareness is low. Black Bush, the premium trade-up from Original, has a loyal following and weathered the Pernod Ricard years well. Diageo's focus, though, is on the standard spirit.
Maguire believes it has the "accessibility" to win over the younger drinker, especially men.
"Guys will drink brown spirits, as they're seen as more masculine," she says. "Look at Jack Daniel's. It's everywhere, and men as young as 18 will drink it.
"We see the Bushmills drinker as being a bit older than that, 25 to 35, someone who is getting into wines and food, perhaps looking for a quality alternative."
For Maguire, the key is going "back to basics", getting consumers to try it in simple mixed drinks, such as whisky and cola, and compare it with scotch and bourbon.
"Irish is a happy medium," she says. "It lacks the smokiness of scotch and it's not as sweet as bourbon."
That process will be supported by ads in men's lifestyle and sports publications, the continuing sponsorship of Irish Rugby Union and an imaginative promotion that will see the brand reviving the art of story-telling, with story-telling sessions with tastings being staged in London bars.
By the end of it Bushmills might well have its own story to tell.
