Echo Falls Vodka Summer Berries tastes sweet success in travel retail

Accolade Wines has created a strong promotional programme to support the travel retail roll-out of its new Echo Falls Vodka Summer Berries. A successful pop-up shop onboard P&O Ferries is being followed by extensive tasting activity with DFDS ferries and Eurotunnel’s Calais store from June through to September.

The P&O pop-up shops on the Dover Calais routes (28th May-3rd June and 25th June-1st July) highlighted the versatility of the brand’s new flavoured vodka, through innovative serving suggestions, cocktail menus and sampling. It also included special multi-buy price promotions across the new Echo Falls Summer Fruits Vodka, Fruit Fusions and Wine portfolio. Echo Falls stirrers, ice trays and fruit flute “gifts with purchase” further enhanced the passenger spend.

Going forward, Accolade Wines has high hopes in travel retail for its Echo Falls Vodka Summer Berries, which to date has far exceeded expectations with its UK domestic launch.

“We saw flavoured vodka as the next logical step for the Echo Falls brand, given the success of our Echo Falls Fruit Fusion collection,” explains Accolade Wines Commercial Director Global Travel Retail Rupert Firbank. “In the market, categories are blurring, with fruit cider leading the way. We saw a gap for a more affordable flavoured vodka offering, which we think will attract new consumers to the category. Early results are hugely promising. Within travel retail, we are now listed with P&O Ferries, DFDS and Eurotunnel, and are committed to build on this initial presence in 2018 and beyond.”

Echo Falls is the number 2 wine brand in the UK, bought by one in every six households. It is currently enjoying further valuable exposure as the wine sponsor of hit UK reality TV show Love Island. Echo Falls Fruit Fusion enjoys an 83% share of the fruit wine market, and is still generating double-digit growth three years after launch. Summer Berries is the best-selling variant of the Echo Falls Fruit Fusion range, accounting for 52% of the brand sales – and 44% of all fruit wine sales in the UK – thereby making it the most logical choice for the first Echo Falls vodka flavour.

“There are many similarities between the profiles of flavoured vodka shoppers and the Echo Falls Fruit Fusion shopper,” notes Firbank. “Our research revealed that the latter is twice as likely to buy flavoured vodka compared with other wine shoppers, but feels priced out of the category. We’re confident that our new vodka introduction will prove hugely popular with this customer demographic, and allow us to add yet another profitable pillar to the successful Echo Falls portfolio.”