Chivas snubs F1, appoints PR AOR

Singapore - Pernod Ricard's Chivas Regal is taking a bold and risky brand exercise by turning away from the largest sporting event in Singapore for 2008, the Formula1, and is intending to champion and endorse the Chivas Regal Life experience with "Chivas Live", its music-centered initiative, on 26 September - the night of the F1 Night Race.

It has also appointed a new local PR AOR, Manning Selvage & Lee. The account was previously handled by Hill & Knowlton Singapore.

"As the market leader in whiskey, and considering that every single club in Singapore is hopping on the F1 bandwagon, we wanted to challenge the norm and do something different by holding our own event - 'Chivas Live' at the now vacant River Valley Pool," Alfred Goh brand manager of Chivas Regal, said.

With a tagline, "Experience unlike any other", the event aims to highlight the drink's brand positioning and its image of organizing events that are exuberant, luxurious, edgy and "less ordinary". Other initiatives it ran globally include snow-golfing, elephant polo and its first Singapore "Chivas Live" event held in March, for which it closed the Cavenagh Bridge to host a private party.