TUACA is a delicious Italian spirit that has been part of the Eulogy! portfolio for several years. Our latest PR campaign initially focused on achieving product placement in consumer magazines with recipes for the signature serves, but eventually we found ourselves within the online space – a new foray for the brand.

The key messaging behind TUACA has always been about ‘discovery’. This is reflected in TUACA’s UK launch. Initially discovered by a Brighton snowboarder who tried it on the slopes of Colorado, and then returned to tell all her friends about it, TUACA is all about word of mouth.

Since then, TUACA has always been the darling drink of the snowboarding community. Admittedly it’s a very niche audience – but while other brands may try to shed cult status and go for a more mainstream approach, TUACA uses this to its advantage. Because it’s a drink for the type of person who likes to discover a secret and pass it onto their friends, online PR and word of mouth is a perfect platform.

In the last year, TUACA has built upon this notion of discovery and word of mouth by launching the first-ever TUACA Traveller competition.

The competition offered one person and a friend the opportunity to win a two-week snowboarding trip undiscovered slopes across Europe. The site was hosted by snowboarding enthusiasts’ site Mpora.

To support the campaign, team TUACA launched the TUACA Traveller Blog. The blog is written by the winner and was supported by video content of his adventures picked up by sliding sports sites like  Gone Boarding and Life’s a Beach.

We are now looking forward to further cementing TUACA’s presence with the sliding sports industry for 2010, including regional activity in our key cities.  So watch this space because TUACA may surf up on a shore near you soon.

The latest newspaper and magazine readership figures from Eulogy! client the National Readership Survey make grim reading for some of Britain’s most prestigious titles.

NRS is not at liberty to give opinions on individual titles as the industry remains its paymaster. It is jointly funded by the Newspaper Publishers Association, Periodical Publishers Association and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. But a trawl through the latest quarterly NRS survey data release reveals some interesting trends in newspapers and magazines.

Firstly, the data just released for the period ending September 2009 shows that only four of 12 nationals papers in the survey have increased readership in the year from September 08, with the other two-thirds in decline. The FT is doing well at least, with a 12 per cent increase. Conversely, the self-admittedly struggling Independent is down 12 per cent. NRS reports that Northern & Shell’s Daily Star was the only paper to boost both readership (9 per cent) and circulation (14 per cent) during the year in question. Only two Sundays, the Daily Star Sunday and The Sunday Times, increased readership, with dips for all the other titles.

It is a similar picture for lads’ mags – Stuff seeing the only increase overall – with former market leader Loaded down 27 per cent and stalwart FHM dropping 6 per cent.

So where are all the readers going? Undoubtedly people are watching their pennies at the moment and a magazine that costs a few quid may no longer be flavour of the month. It’s harder to tell what’s going on with national newspapers, as the figures seem to contradict those ABC figures combed by Eulogy! last week with the conclusion that, despite the plethora of free online news sources, people still value print editions.

Whatever the reason, the figures don’t lie. The national newspaper and magazine market is in general decline, and one way or another – be it monetising internet-based current affairs or revolutionising the print market beyond simple price wars – publishers must innovate to persuade the great British reader that it’s still worth turning out their pockets on a regular basis to keep up with the latest news and trends.