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MARTIN RILEY HAS worked for some of the largest drinks companies in the world and on some of the biggest spirits brands. His CV includes Sandeman, James Burrough, Allied-Lyons/Domecq, Seagram and Pernod Ricard/Irish Distillers.

He has lived and worked in France, Ireland, Russia, Belgium and the UK.

The 62-year-old retired as Pernod’s chief marketing officer in 2014. A member of the Worshipful Company of Distillers and the Worshipful Company of Marketers, he now consults.

Born in Manchester, Riley’s father was a scaffolder. When he was about eight, his dad took him up but views over the smoky, grimy city failed to inspire him. Not for him the heady heights of scaffolding – he got into Oxford to study modern languages. At that point he was a beer drinker and a member of the rowing club, but a friend suggested he joined the university wine society and that was his first experience of taking drinks seriously.

Part of the course was a year in France teaching English. Riley ended up in Revel, a small town between Toulouse and Carcassonne with some 5,000 souls. Yet it had four distilleries, mainly making fruit liqueurs, the most famous of which is Get 27, a mint liqueur still popular in France and now owned by Bacardí. During his time, Riley gained an appreciation of wine and a taste for Armagnac.

At the end of his Oxford days, there was the “milk round, applying for the usual sorts of things”, he says. “Then I saw an advertisement. Sandman was looking for a graduate. It was working in London on Offley port, which was a 50:50 venture between the Sandeman family and Martini.”

The then Canadian drinks giant Seagram bought Sandeman (with Offley going to Martini) around 1980. Riley found himself looking after Seagram in the Benelux countries.

In 1984, Riley noticed an ad from London distiller James Burrough, looking for a UK marketing manager for its Beefeater gin brand. Riley was interviewed by Burrough’s legendary figure, Alan Mays-Smith.

“I had done my research on the company but then Alan went to this wooden cabinet and said: ‘This is what I want you to work on,’” says Riley.

He presented what must be one of the very first RTDs (ready-to-drink). What came to be known as the Mixed Doubles, it was a double Beefeater gin and tonic in a single-serve bottle with a ring-pull lid and a wide enough mouth as to make drinking straight from the bottle easy. At 99p, it was a no-brainier for tired, harassed, commuters needing a drink on the way home, picnickers, golfers and yachtsmen/women.

Riley makes no claim to inventing the concept but he rode its wave of success. “It was exhilarating. It was absolutely taking the tiger by its tail. It was formally launched at the Earls Court Boat Show and went down a storm.”

The company went on to introduce vodka and tonic, whisky and ginger, rum and cola and, in Scotland, vodka and whisky with lemonade. It was ground-breaking at the time.

SAFE PAIR OF HANDS

James Burrough was bought by Whitbread and, in turn, Whitbread pulled out of drinks to concentrate on retailing. Riley found himself at Allied-Lyons as marketing director of Beefeater. At the time, Allied was a sprawling conglomerate, including brewing and distilling, owning pubs, and food concepts such as Baskin-Robbins and Dunkin’ Donuts.

Riley, obviously regarded as a safe pair of hands with more than his fair share of charm, was then sent to Russia to see if there were any interesting, good quality vodka brands up for sale.

This was the time of Boris Yeltsin and the emergence of the now famous oligarchs, as the state tried to raise money by selling off some of its utilities and other interests, such as distilleries. Riley got the run-around and returned. Within an Allied reorganisation, he became head of Allied’s scotch brands, mainly Ballantine’s, Teacher’s and Laphroaig.

With an uncanny ability to know when is the right time to move (2005 – Allied-Domecq was subsequently carved up by Pernod Ricard and Fortune Brands, which became Beam and now Beam Suntory, with a little help from Diageo), Riley jumped ship again and went to work on a little-known Irish whiskey brand called Jameson, part of the Irish Distillers’ portfolio, now owned by Pernod Ricard. This was 1997.

It was a challenging move, going from the second largest drinks company in the world, handling volumes of around 12m cases, to Irish Distillers where Jameson was shifting about 800,000 cases.

“At that time, Pernod Ricard had no global brands. The Ricard brand was massive in France. I could see the potential of Irish whiskey and Jameson had to be the vehicle.

In 2000, Canadian conglomerate Seagram decided to sell its drinks business – that was the start of making Pernod Ricard the global company it is today. Diageo and Pernod carved up Seagram’s drinks portfolio.

Riley relates another seminal moment – a meeting with Irish Distillers’ Richard Burrows, who became Pernod’s joint managing director. “He poured a Jameson into a Waterford crystal tumbler and asked me to taste it. It was a wake-up moment. It was totally different from scotch and something distinctive.

“Jameson started from a difference place. Sales were mostly UK and Ireland. The question was how to encourage young American adults to say: ‘I want to drink Jameson.’ People were drinking vodka at that time. Jameson is, obviously, not a scotch, so we had to create our own space. We wanted to be the next Jack Daniel’s,” says Riley.

The strategy was to target bars in New York, specifically Manhattan, below 96th street. Irish Distillers had an ‘early adopter’ undergraduate trainee scheme. These young (predominately) men were Jameson’s ‘secret weapon’. They went round bars conducting tastings, conveying their enthusiasm both for Jameson and for all things Irish. In New York, with its ex-pat Irish community, it was akin to pushing against an open door.

JAMESON’S EPICENTRE

As Manhattan rents soared, many young people moved to Brooklyn. According to Riley, it became the “epicentre for Jameson” with all the students and artists adopting the brand.

On top of that, the brand’s ad agency came up with a campaign based on the theme What’s the Rush for the triple-distilled whiskey.

Another key moment for Riley was when Richard Burrows requested he go to Paris in 2000 around the time Pernod was negotiating with Diageo to buy Seagram. Under strict secrecy, he was asked to look at Seagram’s flagship whisky, Chivas Regal. It had been a favourite of the Seagram family.

“I was asked: ‘Could we revive it?’ I spent some time looking at it. I thought it was one of the most iconic brands in the spirits industry. Also, scotch whisky sells everywhere.

“Again, it was the taste. It was scotch but it was very smooth, not challenging. Seagram had been remarkably consistent with its message around the world. With the small brown bottle and silver and gold, the message was: ‘If you are successful, you drink Chivas.’ Slightly arrogant, but that comes with success. It was aspirational,” says Riley.

One of the advertising executions featured three friends “chewing the fat”, chilling out, ice fishing in Alaska. “This was the Chivas life – modern luxury.” On acquisition and with the addition of Seagram’s global distribution, the instruction from above was: “Get behind Chivas.”

So what is Riley doing now? He is a non-executive director of a design agency and has been sharing his wealth of knowledge with the owners of a mezcal brand called Silencio and an artisan Polish vodka, Kavka.

One of Riley’s bugbears is ‘FMCG’, in marketing speak. As far as he is concerned spirits are not fast-moving consumer goods. So the advertising, marketing and promotional strategy for spirits brands should not be treated as such. Beer and wine brands, such as Jacob’s Creek, yes, but spirits? No.

He asks: “How often to people buy spirits? One, two bottles a year? Spirits are relatively expensive for most people. The supermarkets are not always appreciative of spirits – they have craftsmanship, authenticity, heritage, provenance.”

His favourite drink: “Gin and tonic, followed by whisk(e)y and Armagnac (he is an ‘Armagnac musketeer’, as is this writer… more of that in the future).”

His epitaph: “The glass is more than half full. He lived the life of Riley.”

So, that’s the Life of Riley for you.

A LIFE OF RILEY ETYMOLOGY

Some scholars argue that this Riley (originally spelt Reilly) referred to the character who appeared in a song written by Pat Rooney in 1890. In the song Riley says if he ever became the president of the US then New York would “swim in wine when the White House and Capitol are mine”.

Some others argue that it was an American poet by the name of James Whitcomb Riley who gave rise to this idiom. Apparently, Riley (1849-1916) wrote sentimental poems about young boys, which were very popular during his time. The poems told the stories of young boys lazing around during the summer without a care in the world — wandering about barefoot, swimming in the river and fishing.