Canadian Club bets on poker star to deal a winning hand
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Allied Domecq PLC, the world's second-largest spirits company, is adding a new ingredient to revive the fading Canadian Club whisky brand: poker champ Chris Moneymaker.
The company has hired the amateur player who won the World Series of Poker in 2003 to host poker contests as part of a new marketing push for the brand, Susan Kilgore, Canadian Club marketing director, said in an interview.
"Canadian Club was losing relevance with males aged 21 to 29," Ms. Kilgore said. "It's a brand that has been flat for 30 years."
Annual sales of Canadian Club have declined from a high of four million cases in the early 1970s to 1.38 million cases last year. Sales rose 1 per cent in 2004, while sales of whisky and other spirits have soared in the United States as companies increased advertising and drinkers switched from beer. Canadian Club is the No. 3 selling brand in the United States for Allied, behind Kahlua coffee-flavoured liqueur and Stolichnaya vodka.