Martini invests 2m in summer marketing

The campaign targeting 25-29 year old females will kick off on 4 June 2008 with a national PR campaign fronted by Natalie Imbruglia to launch Martini Rosato.

Additionally consumers will be educated on the four new serves via an off-trade sampling campaign, promoting the serves as long drinks and pitchers in major multiples and through on-trade activation in All Bar One, Browns Restaurant, Ha Ha, Pitcher & Piano and Slug & Lettuce from 10 June.

The new pitcher serves were successfully tested via a number of qualitative focus groups with young women across the country and include:

Martini Rosato with pomegranate juice. This new ros-style variant has a delicate spicy flavour and is best served long over ice with a lime wedge.
? Martini Bianco and Martini Extra Dry with apple juice
? Martini Rosso with cranberry juice

Liam Newton, Martini Director of Marketing comments: "Martini is no longer about lemonade, it's about long drinks and pitchers mixed with refreshing fruit juices. We know from research that young women love the new serve because it's great to share with friends in a bar and just as easy to create at home, since it doesn't require any faffing about with fruits and garnishes that are typical of traditional pitcher serves.

"We are also very confident that Martini Rosato will be a real hit with women this summer because it capitalises on the growth in ros wine and uses pomegranate juice as its key mixer. We are thrilled to have Natalie Imbruglia on board to launch the drink, who we chose because of her aspirational image with young women and her Italian roots."

Natalie Imbruglia will kick off the Martini Rosato launch campaign on 4 June by hosting a celebrity attended party at Kensington Roof Gardens, London.

She said: "Being half Italian, I'm honoured to work with such a stylish and iconic brand with a strong Italian heritage behind it. I really love the new Martini Rosato, it's just gorgeous served with pomegranate juice - much more interesting than a bottle of wine. I also love the fact that a long Martini drink is lighter than wine, meaning you look as good at the end of the night as you did the beginning!"

Recent research has revealed that 1 in 2 UK women are not aware of the number of units of alcohol in their drink of choice or of their recommended daily allowance of alcohol (three units per day maximum).

Martini Rosato is a lighter drink with only 15% ABV and a 70ml serve of any style of Martini is equivalent to just one unit of alcohol.