Having launched into the Scottish on trade market in late 2011, Caledonia Best quickly sought to establish routes via which to engage its target audience of 35-55 year old ale-drinking males. Consumer research highlighted golf as a significant interest; however, with Caledonia Best’s main competitor already active in this territory, the brand needed a bold statement to announce itself and swiftly build credibility.

My role was to work with our sponsorship agency to find a solution to this challenge to establish golf credentials, and we identified Sam Torrance as the embodiment of the brand personality; charismatic, dry, Scottish, respected. We engaged Sam as an exclusive brand partner; securing IP and appearance rights that we would leverage to deliver benefit for trade customers and sales teams, helping to drive rapid distribution and sales growth and seeing Caledonia Best become the fastest growing draught ale brand in Scotland.

To reveal Sam as Caledonia Best Clubhouse Captain, we invited Celtic’s Scott Brown and Ranger’s Steven Whittaker to join a golf lesson with a difference, creating an entertaining piece of content to launch the new brand partnership. Working with Celtic and Rangers players was an effective PR tactic to reach the massive male audience for these clubs and increase awareness for Caledonia Best. Watch

Agreeing a designation of ‘Clubhouse Captain’ we utilised appearance rights to have Sam host a golf day for the trade with an exclusive invite from Caledonia Best, a huge draw for the sales team to engage customers and generated a trade press brand story. Ensuring Sam’s involvement on the day was optimised, guests were given the unique opportunity to take part in a ‘nearest the pin’ challenge against the Ryder Cup hero and former winning captain at Dundonald’s signature 11th hole.