While Baileys have a history of creative advertising and a reputation for being a “girls’ drink”, is the way they advertise to women really effective?

As we know from Target Women and various FAILS from companies like Dell, marketing a product for women has loads of potential to go seriously, seriously wrong. But what’s interesting about Baileys, is that it’s not a drink necessarily “for women”. Because it’s sweet, a lot of men recoil when offered a chilled glass of Baileys because, don’t cha know, they only drink beer. But then again, there are a ton of men out there who love Baileys and will happily choose a Baileys cocktail over a pint.

So how does a company market to a predominantly female audience, without excluding men? How do you get men to be “engaged” with your advertisements, without alienating women?

That in itself is a pretty big question, but I think that perhaps this time, Baileys have figured it out.

Last week I was invited to spend a day on the set of Baileys new TV advertisements for the next round of their “Listen To Your Lips” campaign. (No, sadly, I was not given Baileys to drink all day like I had hoped. ) The whole thing was quite glamorous – there were tired looking advertising executives, panicky crew members running around shouting things into walkie talkies, and hand models being followed around by their assistants with gigantic bags of hand cream and nail files in tow.

Seriously.

While I did feel the urge to lick the leading lady of the advert in vein hope that doing so would transfer a bit of her elegance to me, I wasn’t just there to gawk at the pretty people or the fantastic view we had on set at the rooftop of the Truman Brewery.

I was there on a mission to discover how and even if it seemed possible for Baileys to have a campaign called “Listen To Your Lips” featuring overly-attractive young women, and have it hit that Sexy X Factor without making women:

a) feel like crap about themselves

b) get angry because it’s pornographic, patronizing, or just plain dumb

The last set of adverts for Bailey’s Lips campaign were, well, a bit abstract. You had giant mouths with drops of Baileys spilling on their lips, giant teeth seductively biting their owners lips, and women singing to themselves. The last of which wasn’t so bad, but it just looked like they were on a sound stage somewhere. It wasn’t...personal.

Excitingly, the three new adverts for the campaign actually look much more promising. Their new director, the Icelandic director and photographer Börkur, has a glamorous background in the fashion world and truly brings so much to the table. Watching the playback I was absolutely amazed at how warm, personal, and dare I saw beautiful the adverts look.

All this, from a woman singing to herself.

The adverts are meant to convey women who are having a good time, hear a familiar song , and with their trusty Baileys a their side, decide to “listen to their lips” cut loose and sing along.

Yeah, it sounds cheesy.

But there was something about the way Börkur shot the scene that made me wish it was a feature length advert so I could spend the next 90 minutes of my life watching his magic on screen.

I got a chance to speak with the creative director of the advertising agency JWT for the campagin, Hugh Todd,  and he explained to me how exactly they go about advertising to both women and men and making it sexy in a way that is both appealing both sexes.  Interestingly, a big part of this came down to make-up and  Börkur.

“We had this whole thing of ‘do they  [the models] wear lipstick’ and if they do, do they look tarty? Because if they do the women think they look like a bit of a slut. And the guys think ‘oh, this is a bit pornographic’ and it kind of gets seedy and we don’t want any of that.

“What we try to always do is keep the lips the idea, not what’s been put on them. We always use a neutral kind of gloss. And they look great. “

The previous adverts in the "Listen to Your Lips" series were first done by Rankin, but as Hugh points out, they were a bit too high fashion, a bit to “hard”, “A lot of lipstick brands and fashion houses go for that really hard look. Bailey’s isn’t about hard, it’s soft, it’s warm and we wanted to have a whole color pallet that was Baileys-esque.”

It seems like the most important decision for where a campaign like this can go, is having a director who knows the right way to shoot women. A concept in which plenty of directors and photographers have and will continue to fail at.

“We saw some of Börkur's stills and while it was a little bit of a risk to go with him because he hasn’t done as many TV spots...Looking at his work, there’s a fun side to all of it. It’s the style of shooting women and making them look fun and beautiful, not cold, that was quite a big thing for us and that’s why we chose Börkur.”

The creative team and Börkur seem to have certainly captured having an environment that is as warm, fun and approachable as it is sexy and beautiful - as it is female friendly.  Is Börkur style of shooting and portraying women what Baileys has been missing all along?

Until we see the final product, there’s no way of being sure.

But what I can say, is that from what I saw last week, all signs point to yes.