This vodka is Absolut-ly fabulous

The bar rolls up, accompanied by two young hostesses in short skirts and bright tees. The offerings on the bar are even more flamboyant. Five glass options (from the martini glass and a champagne flute to the more esoteric bamboo glass), five flavoured Absolut vodkas, an array of mixers and condiments and an enthused bartender at my service.

I jump to the challenge and create my very own eponymous cocktail, and it arrives at my table looking quite the bonny drink. A neat journal is also mine, presumably for me to fill with the cocktails they hope I will be creating with all the Absolut flavours I can buy on my way home.

A polaroid of me and my drink completes the heady evening. Thirty-seven others posed with 37 ingenious cocktails that night. We are now the proud owners of our very own version of Absolut.

Absolutely winning.

It's been a little shy of two years since Absolut, the world's third-largest selling spirits brand, entered the duty paid market in India, but it's only now that focussed promotions are being rolled out.

Twenty-four years after a single source Swedish vodka in a medicine bottle stormed the premium vodka market in the United States, V&S Absolut Spirits decided the annual Indian vodka consumption of 9,00,000 cases justifed its entry into the market.

Absolut's proposition has found takers here with sales expanding from 4,000 cases in the first year to 15,000 cases the second, but there's still plenty of room to grow.

Siddharth Banerji, director, Kyndal India, Absolut's Indian marketer and distributor, is pleased with what they've achieved so far.

"Today, we're in every state that allows us to distribute imported alcohol. Now that the breadth of distribution is complete, we will increase the depth of it. That makes the next logical step marketing," says Banerji. Well, Kyndal has enough to borrow from Absolut's legendary history of advertising and branding.

At the fulcrum of the success of the world's most attractive vodka brand lies the old chemist's bottle, one of the most recognised silhouettes in advertising history.

"The bottle is an icon, our hero. It is a connection between advertising and consumption," says Sabina Hagglund, director-communications development, V&S Absolut Spirits. And while the bottle was half the battle, clever advertising quickly followed.

The ads are all witty variations on the same theme: a picture of the Absolut Vodka bottle with a small caption starting with the word Absolut. It takes years for phrases to be identified with specific brands -- Absolut nailed it with its very first campaign with Absolut Perfection.

After 25 years of building a brand through print, Absolut, one might think, would be powerless without them in a regulated environment like India.

But Hagglund doesn't think so, "We know how to build our brands in regulated markets, it inspires us to be more creative. For example, we could use platforms of fashion and art for advertising," she says. Absolut is known to successfully capture art, fashion, design and the Absolut bottle all in one slickly executed frame.

Absolut's first association with art in India was MANNA Art, which unveiled new forms of art and design inspired by the Absolut bottle, in July this year. "It's about having a local artist interpret the global perspective of Absolut," explains Hagglund.

In August this year Kyndal invited Jonny Palsson, Sweden's celebrity bartender, to hold drink-mixing sessions for bartenders in Bangalore at an event that blurred the borders of food, drink and fashion. And last fortnight Absolut wove its brand attributes into a staging of Rajit Kapur's production Class of '84. Banerji explains, "Our events are consumption-driven to reach out to different communities of consumers."

In the offing later this year is the inclusion of an Indian designer as part of Absolut's "label" promotion. For the last three years, Absolut has gathered 10 promising young designers from 10 countries, and let their fashion interpret a word taken off the Absolut bottle.

"When we build associations like this, instead of traditional advertising, we build PR value, and also we're adding possibility to have a fantastic event around it," says Hagglund.

Absolut is constantly on the look-out for ways to differentiate the value proposition and improve communication. "We are embracing new media technologies, and if we want to stay leaders, we need to drive innovation in the area," emphasises Hagglund.

In March 2003, for the first time Absolut used the Internet as the primary advertising channel to launch a new product variant -- Absolut Vanilia. The website is exhaustive -- users can attend interactive online parties, get lessons on making different types of cocktails using Absolut and send online invitations to visitors for offline parties, among other interactive creative options.

Nine DJs have created nine tunes around the theme of Absolut, ready to download straight from the website to your iPod. "I believe that that's the future -- connecting to the audience. We need to be more inclusive but still stay aspirational," says Hagglund.

Consumers in India, too, will eventually witness the Absolut way of life in a local context.

Hagglund says, "You cannot negotiate the brand personality inconsistently. India is a global local market and we won't do it any differently here."

In the last issue of the slick Absolut magazine Reflexions, which hangs out with the hottest people, places, and of course bars around the world, a unique trend campaign called Absolut Metropolis featured Tokyo's most extreme street fashionistas wearing their own designs inspired by Absolut. Hagglund hints at a similar project in India.

"We have realised that today art, design and music are being democratised; you can create your own music, design your own clothes. Absolut will continue to work with the great names but we also want to work with art on the street."

In fact, Absolut is working on building branding best practises, promotions that have worked well in one country that they can roll out in all their markets.

"At the airport in Amsterdam, an Absolut carton was placed on a conveyor belt with just one Absolut bottle in it, implying there were many more that were flicked as it made its way. The box said Absolut Temptation. The reactions were hilarious; some people even tried to close the box up. Now that is such a great idea to bring here," laughs Hagglund.

I wouldn't hold my breath until Delhi is chosen the fifth venue for the Absolut Icebar (there are four in Europe, where the ice comes from the Tornealven River in Sweden, and guests can borrow fur coats and gloves at the door) or real time webcasts of Mumbai's Absolut launches on the website.

Kyndal has its work cut out for it if it is to try and match up to the sophistication and innovation of promotional activity Absolut carries out elsewhere. And then all these promotions will have to convert into consumption figures.

And while it may not be fair to compare a premium import with a domestic vodka, Indian drinking traditions do swing to the beat of price points. Telling people to buy a $32 vodka can be done in many fun ways, but are they listening? An Absolut challenge.