This article was originally published in December/January’s issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. For more details, including how to subscribe, click here.
Gifting occasions in China and other Asian countries offer enormous opportunities for beverage alcohol throughout the year, but things really ramp up for Lunar New Year. Sandra Newman reports.
’Tis the season for gifting and the Lunar New Year festival is a key trading period for wine and spirits companies in China and other Asian markets.
Of course, new year is not the only prime time for gifting in Asia. China may still be heavily affected by COVID-related restrictions — including bans on international travel — but 2022 saw an upsurge in activity in the region, with many countries now able to host a full programme of annual events.
Pernod Ricard China MD Jerome Cottin-Bizonne notes positive trends driven by the return of seasonal celebrations: “Traditional holidays, like Chinese New Year (CNY) and [September’s] Mid-Autumn Festival, are still peak seasons for China’s alcohol market, with lots of convivial moments, such as reunions with families or friends and gifting for business friendships,” he says. “This is underpinned by our strong sales in China this Mid-Autumn Festival, which contributed to our record sales in the first quarter of fiscal 2023 [three months to end of September] with 9% year-on-year growth in this market.”
In the short term, the slowdown of international travel will impact Pernod’s performance in China, admits Cottin-Bizonne, although “CNY and travel retail still show large potential”.
Brands target seasonal sales spikes with festive releases
Like many brand owners, Pernod Ricard has released festive editions of its major brands for Chinese consumers and Cottin-Bizonne says 2022 CNY editions for Martell and Royal Salute have been well received. “Royal Salute is celebrating Chinese New Year 2023 with a limited-edition Lunar New Year gift pack with its iconic 21-year-old Signature Blend,” he notes. “It’s designed by Trajan Jia, a renowned Chinese-born, London-based artist.”
Kaitlyn Tsai, brand ambassador & global PR officer at Taiwanese whisky brand Kavalan, also highlights the occasion’s importance. “Lunar New Year is absolutely an important gifting occasion for Kavalan,” she says. “We offer various whisky gift sets designed for both whisky beginners and connoisseurs. At Lunar New Year 2021, Kavalan released an exclusive Taiwan-focused series featuring the island’s native exotic species that illustrate auspicious symbols of hope and prosperity.”
For this year, Tsai says: “We will reveal an exclusive gift set series inspired by Taiwanese bird species that celebrates the richness of Taiwan’s natural beauty and biodiversity.”
Tsai also emphasises the significance of other key occasions for gifting in Asia, Kavalan’s biggest regional market. “New Year’s Day, the Dragon Boat Festival, Father’s Day and the Moon Festival are also important traditions and gifting occasions in Asian culture”, she adds.
Travel restrictions can’t dampen importance of Lunar New Year
At global travel retailer DFS Group, VP for spirits, wines, tobacco, food & gifts & partnerships Marie d’Hauteville agrees that Lunar New Year retains its importance despite continued restrictions on international travel to and from China.
“With DFS locations in four continents and 12 countries worldwide, our Lunar New Year campaigns continue to invite customers to celebrate the festive holiday with us, no matter if they’re travelling through one of our 13 airport locations or visiting one of our 25 downtown T Galleria stores,” she says. “Lunar New Year also marks a festive time to gift a bottle or share one around the table with loved ones.”
For both the end-of-year holiday season and Lunar New Year, DFS produces curated gift guides to help travelling consumers choose gifts. The ‘Give Joy: The Holidays Must Go On’ campaign has been running across all the group’s locations in Asia, Oceania and the US.
D’Hauteville says: “An assortment of wine and spirits are already included in our holiday gift guides and will also be appropriately featured in our Lunar New Year gifting edits. The Veuve Clicquot Icons range will be launched just in time for Lunar New Year in all our North American airport locations, including John F Kennedy, Los Angeles and San Francisco International airports, alongside other exciting spirits launches.”
Other potential gift items include a Hennessy x NBA limited-edition collaboration, available in the US.
GTR to return to pre-pandemic levels this year?
IWSR Drinks Market Analysis predicts that alcohol sales in Global Travel Retail are unlikely to revert to pre-COVID trading levels before 2024-25 at the earliest. However, Kavalan’s Tsai is optimistic that the category will be back on form far earlier; she feels that releasing special-edition Lunar New Year products for GTR is a valuable exercise, despite the difficulties the market faces.
“It’s definitely worth it,” Tsai says. “It feels like COVID-19 is now a part of our daily lives. The travel retail market is increasingly competitive. Travellers are more price aware and tend to buy something different and unique. That’s why we need to create the necessary incentive for our potential customers.
“There are glimmers of hope for us to expect the category to be back to pre-pandemic levels by late 2023. We’re delighted to see people return to international travel and are noticing GTR sales are slowly improving compared to 2021. We’ve received orders from all over the world, especially in Asia.”
Focus on India
While India is home to a wealth of seasonal events, such as Diwali, John Distilleries’ head of digital marketing & public relations, Asa Abraham, says Christmas remains a key occasion in international markets.
“The annual Indian festive season is an important gifting occasion for us,” she says. “In India, the season begins with Dussehra at the start of October and runs through to Christmas. Most years, we bring out an exclusive gift-with-purchase special offer in a festive pack. Internationally, the Christmas season is definitely the greatest gifting season.”
The company recently released the fifth edition of its annual Paul John Whisky Christmas offering, limited to 7,000 bottles. “The expression is released in select markets across the globe and reaches shelves in November in most markets,” says Abraham. “Packaged exclusively for Christmas, with flavours that are reminiscent of the flavours and aromas that resonate with the season, our Christmas editions are much awaited, especially by connoisseurs and collectors.”
The company also launched gift-with-purchase offers for its flagship expressions in selected regional markets in India, including a glass with every 75cl of Paul John Brilliance or Paul John Bold. John Distilleries has also had success in GTR with a curated range of miniatures with channel-exclusive packaging aimed at Indian souvenir hunters. The range includes the first release of Kanya by Paul John, and the limited-edition Mars Orbitor, which is available at Bangalore Airport.
Bacardi’s GTR division has also been targeting key gift-giving occasions in the country, running activations for Dewar’s blended Scotch to promote the 12-, 15- and 18-year-old iterations. Late last year, the unit ran an omnichannel ‘Diwali Deserves Dewar’s’ activation across 14 airports in India, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Europe. A limited-edition Diwali gift presentation featured patterns based on the traditional Rangoli art form, while consumers were targeted with pre-travel marketing and could pre-order products for collection at airport stores.
For Onam, the biggest annual festival in Kerala, Bacardi GTR created a three-month campaign running from 1 August to 31 October. The event featured a competition run by retailers Cochin Duty Free and Alpha-kreol with the chance to win a car, along with a number of branded gifts-with-purchase, including bags and bottle tags. Last year saw a surge in people travelling through Cochin Airport to celebrate with family and friends following two years of restrictions.
Bacardi’s GTR director for India, Middle East & Africa, Alexey Babin says: “This campaign created real excitement in-store at a peak time when gifting is such an important purchase motivation.”
This article was originally published in December/January’s issue of Global Drinks Intel magazine. For more details, including how to subscribe, click here.
