An Australian craft gin advent calendar pack is creating an exciting product experience for gin lovers in the lead up to Christmas. PKN spoke to David Box of Gintonica about the project.
“An Australian Craft Gin Advent Calendar? Brilliant!' - these are the words David Box has heard repeatedly since he brought the concept to his supply partners a few months ago.
Box, a gin enthusiast and the author of a soon-to-be launched definitive Guide to Australian Gin, says he got the idea after having sampled a gin advent calendar from the UK last year. However, he said, the bottles in that pack were too small, and the pack itself unimaginative. He knew he could do it better.
For the box construction, he approached Orora Speciality Packaging who produced a mock-up concept “overnight”.
“I dealt with Brad Marshall and I have to say he delivered one of the best customer experiences I have ever had (and I've worked in the corporate environment for over 25 years prior to starting Gintonica). Brad and the team at Orora Speciality went all out to deliver exactly what I was looking for.
“Brad came up with the clever idea to create a triangular nick in each pop-out window, so that the consumer can put a finger through the hole and get a hold of the bottle neck before pulling it out. It also gives the consumer a peep-hole preview that there is a bottle inside each window. It's all about creating an exciting and memorable consumer experience."
The calendar box is constructed from white-lined e-flute, a recycled material supplied by Orora. It sports original botanical illustrations of plants used in gin production – including 10 Australian natives – from artist Liene Drulle.
On the graphic design side, Box worked with Sydney studio Rentons, who assisted in the production of the 'mini-me' labels that were true to the full-size labels of each of the 24 sample packs.
“At Rentons, Jacqueline Stootman went the extra mile to retrieve the artwork from all 24 distillers and produce a high quality label for each bottle,” Box said.
According to Box, the whole project came together, from concept to shelf ready, in seven weeks.
Each pack contains: 24 x 50ml Australian Craft Gins, labelled to remember what you tasted. Samples come from five states and 21 distillers ( there are over over 80 distillers in Australia). Included in the line-up are gins with international awards, new gins and others that are hard to get.
Other value adds in the pack are tasting notes and serving suggestions from the distiller, cocktail instructions from The Martini Whisperer and a map of 101 Aussie & NZ gin producers.
The advent calendars can be ordered direct from www.gintonica.com.au.
