Diageo held an event at the TFWA World Exhibition in October to celebrate the new
Johnnie Walker global marketing campaign, Joy Will Take You Further, which gave
an insight into how the campaign’s ethos will shape its wider plans for travel
retail. The campaign champions the power of joy in driving
progress, and the event featured a lively panel discussion on the potential of
joy on the shoppers’ experience, the joy of giving and how joy was harnessed to
create a new short film for Johnnie Walker, called The Gentleman’s Wager II.
Guests at the event in Cannes were shown an exclusive trailer of the new film, introduced
by Oscar-nominated Italian actor and star of the film, Giancarlo Giannini.
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| Guests at Diageo's Joy Will Take You Further event in Cannes |
The joy of giving improves our well-being
Joining Giannini on the panel were Dr Matt Killingsworth,
leading psychologist and happiness expert; Doug Bagley, managing director of
Diageo Global Travel & Middle East and Peter Fairbrother, global marketing director
for Diageo Global Travel & Middle East.
Dr Killingsworth explained the background to the Joy Will
Take You Further campaign and the science of happiness. He explained how the
study of joy and progress shows us that happiness makes success more likely. At
the event a short film of an experiment developed in partnership with Dr Killingsworth, who studies human happiness,
was shown. The experiment – called Gratitude – showed how those who buy gifts
for others gain more from the experience than those buying gifts for
themselves.
The results were impressive, with 69% of those who
shopped for others experienced increased levels of well-being. Commenting on
this, Dr Killingsworth said: “What this experiment shows us – albeit with a
limited sample size – is that the joy of giving actually improves our
well-being. A large body of scientific research demonstrates that greater
well-being, in turn, makes people more successful at work and in their personal
lives. In other words, joy will take you further.”
Interesting juncture for travel retail
Bagley commented: “We’re at a really interesting juncture
for travel retail. Passenger numbers and average spend are increasing year-on-year,
with new airports opening rapidly to meet the demand. Yet while the channel is
growing, there are a number of challenges which make it increasingly
competitive, and consumers are faced with a growing number of competing
distractions at airports. The reality is that of 100 people who go into an
airport, currently only 12 will buy alcohol – so that’s a huge opportunity for
us and our customers.”
He continued: “To leverage this opportunity, and
particularly the important gifting market, we believe that we need to bring joy
back to the journey for travellers. We’ll do this through celebrating the joy
of giving, creating disruptive and engaging shopping experiences and an
unrivalled ease of shop – all underpinned by our growth drivers premiumisation
and differentiation, with innovation at the heart of all we do.”
The Gratitude experiment can be viewed at www.youtube.com/johnniewalker.
The social media hashtag is #JoyWillTakeYouFurther.
