Relaunching a Market Pioneer

Templeton Rye helped launch a renaissance of the rye whiskey category in 2006. At the time, total Rye Whiskey sales in the US were less than 100,000 9-Liter cases annually. 

In 2018, the category topped 1,000,000 9-Liter cases, a tenfold increase in just over a decade.[1] The resurgence of the cocktail culture and consumers’ desire to experiment, combined with rye’s rich history dating back to colonial times across brown spirits, have fueled this category growth and invited new entrants to the category, almost two dozen alone in 2017.

But Templeton's growth had begun to lag behind these new competitors.  The brand had done little in recent years to stay fresh with this new wave of consumers and challengers.  It was time for something new.

Combining an online quantitative market structure with deep-dive qualitative brand exploratory learning, we helped Templeton Rye:

1. Identify a new target audience
2. Develop a new brand anthem
3. Craft a new Creative Brief
4. Validate a new package and creative platform

[1]Source: “Rye Whiskey: The Return of an American Classic.” Distilled Spirits Council, April, 2019. https://www.distilledspirits.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Rye-Whiskey-2018.pdf