Two Categories Collide | Chief Marketing Officer, Treasury Wine Estates, Angus Lilley on Squealing Pig

Two categories collide

SQUEALING PIG ROSÉ IS THE BIGGEST SELLING ROSÉ IN AUSTRALIA. THE HUGE SUCCESS OF THE SQUEALING PIG BRAND HAS LED TREASURY WINE ESTATES (TWE) TO CAPITALIZE ON THE BOOMING GIN CATEGORY BY APPLYING THE BRAND’S MAGIC FORMULA TO SQUEALING PIG ROSÉ GIN. CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, TWE, ANGUS LILLEY EXPLAINS THE PROCESS OF COMBINING TWO HIT CATEGORIES.

What makes the Squealing Pig brand so successful? Number one rosé, number two selling Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris in Australia. What is the secret?

This brand has some magic to it that if we could pick it up and redeploy it and repurpose it, life would be easy. It’s a combination of elements, the pack, the name, the quality of the wine. They are resonating with consumers. I think we are very conscious of how we bring the brand to life. Had we thought about it for a standalone gin brand or for other brands it may not have felt right, but for Squealing Pig it just felt such a natural fit.

How long has Squealing Pig been on the market now?

Nine years. It was a stand-alone Sauvignon Blanc until 2015, and that’s when we introduced the rosé, and in that time it went from roughly 50,000 cases to significantly more.

Was the rosé the driver of that?

There was an element of luck. The Sauvignon Blanc launched at a time when Sauvignon Blanc was flying. The rosé was introduced at a time when rosé started to gain some momentum. There has been strategy involved in introducing varietals that were on the march.

Tell us about the beginnings of the gin/ rosé concept.

“We feel that because of the refreshment piece and because of our target market that the Signature Serve of Squealing Pig Rosé Gin and Soda, rather than traditional tonic, is once again a nice little twist on the expected.”

We have thought about innovation and where we wanted to take the brand for a long time. We introduced cans, different varietals and line extensions, but the success of gin and the ongoing booming success of rosé popped into my head on the back of one of our innovation sessions, and it just felt like a natural fit. We discussed it, and everybody we bounced the idea off said let’s do it. It came together quickly as a team effort, and we worked from there.

Four Pillars has been very successful, combining wine and gin with its Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Gin. Was that an inspiration?

I think inspiration for this product came from many places, seeing what the likes of Four Pillars had done; what had been done overseas in terms of other styles of gin and botanicals being used. If you look at the gin category now and you think about where we were in retail and the choice compared to where it is now, the growth is mindboggling. There are a few select examples that provided some inspiration, but the category as a whole is innovative across the board.

Is the gin grape or grain-based, Australian and local? And was that a decision based on the complementary characters of the rosé?

We worked with a third party to create the gin itself. It is Australian, local and grain-based. Distilling gin is not something Treasury Wine Estates has a history in so we leveraged internal resources, engaged an external resource, and landed on a product we felt worked best when blended with rosé.

What is it about pink gin? What is the appeal?

The success of gin, pink beverages as a whole, and rosé, all fit under the umbrella of the ongoing macro trend of refreshment. We are combining two of the drivers of the success of the refreshment category growth.

Gin and rosé coming together is a natural fit. Ours happens to be a wine-infused gin to create colour, a lot of others are adding colour to create the pink gins. I think it speaks to the broader refreshment category growth that we are seeing.

How important is the packaging? You say you have taken your cues from the wine industry.

If you think about the success of Squealing Pig table wines over the last four years, the brand has nearly quadrupled in size during that time - well into double-digit growth year on year. We were keen to pick up some of the essentials of the brand and bring that to life through the packaging. We were keen to highlight this is different to other gins out there.

What has been the reaction to the product from retailers?

The feeling is really positive in a number of larger retail customers around Australia. We are feeling incredibly positive about it, albeit early days. As this is something new for TWE in terms of bringing a gin to market we did so with a little bit of hesitation, but the strength of the brand and the strength of the category coming together just seems to work.

What has been the feedback from the on-premise?

Incredibly positive. We engaged a broad spectrum of bartenders and mixologists from across the country in the development of the product. We are looking to bring this to life in more meaningful ways with a few select partners as well. There are a number of pink gins out there, but this gin is based on adding wine, and from a flavour point of view, the small addition of rosé really does create something really different.

You have appointed Jason Crawley. What is his role with Squealing Pig gin?

He is helping us with bringing our brand to life in on-premise throughout the

country over the next 12 months. He was also involved in the product development and getting the palate right, and was involved with creating the signature recipes and signature serves. We feel that because of the refreshment piece and because of our target market that the Signature Serve of Squealing Pig Rosé Gin and Soda, rather than traditional tonic, is once again a nice little twist on the expected.

Tell us about the marketing and advertising campaign?

The advertising platform is the Curly Tales of Squealing Pig. One of the elements of the packaging, and in turn what we brought to life through the gin, is the nursery rhyme on the label; being irreverent, tweaking that, playing off the words, crossing out the nursery rhyme itself. The Curly Tales platform we launched about 12 months ago and the reaction has been positive through our social media channels; once again playing to the fact that this is a brand that is a little bit quirky and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Is the plan to go global?

This is a local Australian test and learn. It is the first gin product that Treasury has launched. We feel as though we have landed on something that will work with consumers, but we are very much test and learn and see how we go.

Is this the beginning of a broader range of gins from Treasury Wine Estates?

We see real benefit in terms of leveraging the trend and the consumer following particularly for rosé gin and leveraging that to introduce wine consumers to our gin brand and vice versa. We see some real upside for the category as a whole, and we are confident about where we are heading. If we are successful, it might be something we do more of in the future.

“The success of gin, pink beverages as a whole, and rosé, all fit under the umbrella of the ongoing macro trend of refreshment. We are combining two of the drivers of the success of the refreshment category growth”

Is there going to be further innovation around Squealing Pig using different wine varietals with the gin- broadening the wine and gin spectrum?

We have definitely talked about this. One of the challenges with Squealing Pig and having a brand that is so strong in itself is to make sure we don’t try to make it all things to all people, so we are selective where and how we innovate the brand to make sure we are doing it the right way. There are great opportunities in that space moving forward.