Long before Putin invaded Ukraine, Stolichnaya had a Russia problem.
While Russia has never occupied a particularly savory place in American perceptions, there were no such reservations about Russian vodka, particularly Stolichnaya. Its Russian-ness gave it premium credibility. But not anymore.
Even before the claims of election interference, the Ukraine invasion and the occasional Novichok assassination, Putin was making Russia unpalatable, and Stoli’s association with Russia had become a liability.
To make matters worse, among all the wars Putin was waging – Chechnya, free speech, independent press, LGBTQ rights, etc. – he was also waging a war against Stoli, aggressively trying to claw back the Stolichnaya brand from private ownership and put it under Russian state control.
So how do you market a vodka with such deep ties to Russia, even as Russia sinks to new lows? By positioning it as the only untouched, uncompromised, uncorrupted thing ever to come out of Russia: the only pure thing.
By shining a light on the moral ambiguity of modern-day Russia – and to a lesser extent, the world at large – we created a foil in which to accentuate and celebrate Stolichnaya’s high standards and incorruptibility.
Not everything that was happening in Russia was perceived as a negative. There was a feeling that the wild, “anything goes” transgressiveness of the West had shifted to the East, and its new epicenter was Moscow, where the nightlife knew no bounds and the underground club scene was unrivaled.
As a brand positioning, the only pure thing was a way for Stoli to surround itself with everything cool and intriguing about Russia while disassociating itself from all that is wrong with Russia.
Mood film for pitch.
(Agency I pitched this for: Ogilvy.)
After Ogilvy won, we had seven weeks to produce the campaign and get it in market in time for November and December, the two most critical months for spirits sales, when around 20% of annual sales occur.
With a media plan built around OOH, the campaign took over popular bar-hopping neighborhoods in New York, Boston, Miami, Chicago and San Francisco.
Photography: Warren du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones
Flavors
After launch, the campaign was extended to Stolichnaya flavored vodkas, Stoli cocktails and new product launches.
