The gins – Hendrick’s, Portobello Road No 171, Bombay Sapphire, Tanqueray, Martin Miller’s, Sipsmith and Gordon’s made it into the Drinks List: Top 100 brands.
This is the first top 100 brands list, compiled by The Morning Advertiser in association with research company CGA Strategy.
On-trade consumers were asked what brands they wanted to see behind the bar and this was combined with sales data to create a list of brands that pubs should consider stocking.
Hendrick’s was the most popular gin in the listing with senior brand manager Sam Bovill describing its image as “truly unusual”. The William Grant & Sons brand has been creative with its marketing, focusing on immersive events, digital experiences and unusual cocktails to raise awareness with new consumers.
Next was Bombay Sapphire, widely recognised as the perfect entry level gin for consumers. Year-on-year sales were strong, rising 13.3% in value and 10% volume, while experiential marketing was also a major strategy for the brand.
Diageo-owned Gordon’s came in next, boosted by a stylish new rebrand and marketing campaign. While Diageo’s premium brand Tanqueray saw sales with moving annual totals up 36.7% in volume and 41.4% in value year on year. Activations during the year included a ‘secret garden’ pop-up at Edinburgh fringe.
This was followed by Martin Miller’s gin that has grown in popularity through events such as the Graphic bar Gin Off and masterclasses during London Cocktail Week.
As well as making it into the House of Commons, quintessential British gin Sipsmith raised consumer awareness with events such as cocktail and dinner experiences.
The seventh gin in the top 100 is another British tipple – Portobello Road No 171. It also focused on marketing to boost awareness and launched a 'Shop For Your Perfect G&T' pop-up at the former Chanel boutique in London's Covent Garden earlier this year.
Gin is the fourth largest spirits category in the on-trade accounting for 9.9% of overall spirit sales in the year to 16 April.
- Hendrick’s
- Bombay Sapphire
- Gordon's
- Tanqueray
- Martin Miller's
- Sipsmith
- Portobello Road No 171
The list was compiled by CGA Strategy based on consumer preference, equity scores and sales metrics and includes brands from the spirits, wine, softs and LAD categories. Consumer opinion forms the basis of the methodology, highlighting the brands that consumers want to see when they visit the on-trade. As such a 66:33 weighted split was used to determine the list, balancing consumer preferences with actual on-trade sales performance to give the most accurate and comprehensive list of the 100 ultimate drinks brands in the GB on-trade. By measuring brands against a number of equity features, we have also uncovered consumers’ perception of brands and the reasons why they make up the nation’s favourite drinks – are they cool, fun, value for money, etc. All sales data used in the report is from the brands and their owners.