The industry's favourite buzz word - 'innovation' has been dulled through repetition. Yet it really matters to recruit new consumers and broaden drinking occasions. Tom Bruce-Gardyne talks to some key players and wonders, not for the first time, about Scotch in a can …

"It does give you challenges, but I think they're good challenges," says Diageo master blender, Craig Wallace, about innovating within the tight rules around Scotch whisky. "It makes you think harder about what you do with the distillation process, the ingredients, the different yeasts, different cereals and different cask types. It makes you be more creative."

While Dr Emma Walker does the master blending for Johnnie Walker (no relation), Craig's responsibilities include Buchanan's, Black & White and Old Parr, and extend to Diageo's new Chinese malt distillery, YunTuo, and its portfolio of Indian whiskies.

Part of his job is in liquid innovation and creating new flavours. Of the various ways to do this, mentioned above, it is the use of different cask types that has dominated innovation in Scotch, largely because of the timescale involved.

Tweak the character of your whisky by giving it a few months in some exotic cask before bottling, and the marketing team can get to work on the packaging and story-telling involved in its launch. If you play around with the ingredients for example, the marketeers will have to wait years.

Has the industry neglected other forms of innovation? "Probably up to ten years ago that might have been the case," says Craig. But since the advent of Johnnie Walker Blender's Batch in 2017, at Diageo, he says: "We try and plan in x number of trials a year to have a continuous pipeline, and we sample the casks every couple of years to see how they are progressing."

"One thing, our team doesn't change," he adds. "A lot of people have been there a long time, and that helps keep the momentum going over the years." Unfortunately, those responsible for branding and marketing tend to flit from one spirit to the next in their careers, like bar flies on a night out.

One recent innovation is Buchanan's Green Seal - "a rare whisky pulsing with ritmo" (Spanish for rhythm), according to its website. The blend includes a parcel of Glen Elgin fermented with a South African wine yeast to enhance its citrus fruit, apparently. It comes in a fancy new bottle with a US$99 price tag.

More mainstream, and hugely popular when it launched in the US in 2023, was Buchanan's Pineapple which shows how a big band can sidestep the rules. While technically a 35%abv spirit drink, it is a Buchanan's whisky in all but name to consumers and the trade.

Craig explains how Diageo "has a sensory expert in each region who is close to local flavour styles that are popular." At some point, one of them noticed the Hispanic serve known as a Buchanita, a Buchanan's pineapple cocktail, and the company decided to bottle it.

Moving to (ready-to-drink) RTDs – a massive, booming category in the States – you wonder about the drink's reluctance to pile in. Is there some stigma around Scotch in a can?

"I wouldn't say stigma. I've always been really open to these types of innovation," says Craig. "I don't think there's any reason why we wouldn't do it. It's just a question of creating the best proposition for the consumer. I think you'll see more of that in the years to come."

While not specifically mentioning Scotch whisky, Diageo's new CEO Dave Lewis, zeroed in on RTDs in his first half-year results in February. He claimed the company created the category with brands like Smirnoff Ice and once had a 25% share that has now declined to less than 10%. "We believe that there's a very significant and profitable opportunity for Diageo in RTDs, but we have work to do," he said.

In 2021 Ian Macleod Distillers put Smokehead in a can - a first for malt whisky. "The traction we got was pretty good," says marketing director Iain Weir, but in the end the stocks were needed for bottled sales and he admits "maybe we were ahead of the market."

When it comes to the absence of big blend RTDs however, it does seem odd given the success and scale of canned versions of Jack Daniel's, Jim Beam and Jameson's. Iain wonders if it's partly down to the Scotch industry's single-minded pursuit of premiumisation which "meant RTDs were very much in the rear-view mirror, and didn't necessarily fit the trajectory of travel."

He accepts there is "a level of heritage and tradition that may put off certain brands from going in a tin," but says, "if that's the way people want to consume their whisky you've got to ask yourself 'why not?' if you want to widen your audience and widen the opportunities for people to taste your brand."  

While single-serve tins mean lower margins, he asks: "Is there a level of marketing spend where you use RTDs as a vehicle to bring people into bottle sales? The other thing we realised getting into RTDs is that it's a big volume business."

One company that has taken the plunge is La Martiniquaise with Cutty Sark which last summer launched its ginger ale highball in the US. Results there are "very good," says marketing director Laure Habbouse. "Cutty Sark Ginger Ale allows us to enter new accounts, to be present in events, generating a lot of excitement especially from the younger consumers."

A promotional video shows young surfers chilling out and chucking cans to each other against a jarring heavy-metal soundtrack. At 5%abv and priced at US$9.99 for a pack of four, the RTD addresses some of the category's issues, reckons Laure - "Scotch can be perceived by millennials as too strong, too complex, not easy to drink or to mix." What will Craig Wallace and his team come up with in response?