Spirit of York - Newspaper Ads
“Introducing a new Premium Gin, Distilled in the heart of the City. With time-honoured tradition and state of the art distilling equipment, we’ve crafted a carefully balanced and smooth tasting Gin that captures all the rich character of our special Botanicals. Try this crisp and refreshing taste for yourself at 12 Trinity St. Toronto, in the Historic Distillery District, or at your local LCBO.”
“Introducing a new Premium Vodka, Distilled in the heart of the City. With Ontario grain, the purest Canadian Springwater, and a Passion for spirits, combined with our time-honoured tradition and state of the art distilling equipment, we craft a smooth, pure Vodka, rich in character, and distinctive in taste. You can find us in the Historic Distillery District at 12 Trinity St. Toronto, or at your local LCBO.”
Above are the gin and vodka ads that were printed in the Globe and Mail. This is the final copy, but further changes were made to the visuals afterwards. Both have the same format, starting with an introduction, talking about the marriage of old and new that goes into the creation of the spirits, a taste description, and then a call to action. For the gin, the goal was to get across a light, refreshing beverage. A gin's flavour is defined by its botanicals, so that was a focus as well. For the vodka, research showed that premium vodka drinkers value "purity," so the goal was to communicate that the vodka does indeed have a clean taste. That being said, tasters also find that it stands out from other vodkas, so communicating its differences, without ruining that image of "purity" was key.
Below are some earlier versions of print ads that I worked on. There are many similarities, but you can also see little changes as the client asked for different focuses in the copy.
"Inspired by the Spirit within us all" was a line I wrote that tied back to the idea of the spirit of the city both old and new. It's the idea that people persevere, and our best qualities live on forever. These are the type of people that they look for to make a product like this, and its the type of people they make it for as well.
"The Spirit to love, to laugh, to enjoy" was a line I wrote for the lighter side of the brand. This is why I think it fits the gin nicely. It's about that part of the human spirit that loves life.
