FOR Americans who drink sake only at Japanese restaurants, the thought of ordering it at a bar or buying it at the supermarket may seem as out of place as using chopsticks to eat Cheerios.

But now Ty Ku, a six-year-old sake brand, is hoping to change that with what it says is a first for any sake brand: nationally televised advertising. Starring CeeLo Green, the singer and record producer who also is a Ty Ku co-owner, the campaign is called “Share on,” a reference to a sake custom of pouring it for others, but not for oneself.

A new commercial opens with a chef at a sushi bar handing a bottle of Ty Ku to Mr. Green, who seems about to hand the bottle to someone off to the right of the screen. A hand reaches in and, as the camera pans to the right, pulls it into another setting, where the hand turns out to belong to a woman in a bathing suit dangling her legs in a pool, Mr. Green at her side. Batonlike, the bottle is handed to other settings where Mr. Green is surrounded by beautiful women, including a nightclub.

“Share with me and I’ll share with you,” Mr. Green says. “Share on.”

The commercial, by Filter Creative Group, a Los Angeles marketing and advertising agency, will be introduced Wednesday on cable networks including AMC, BET and the Food Network. Direction is by Mikael Colombu, with production by Vision Film.

For Ty Ku (rhymes with haiku), which has advertised only in trade publications on a limited basis, the campaign is its first aimed at consumers. Beyond indicating that it will be multimillion-dollar campaign, the brand declined to reveal specific expenditures.

The commercial begins at a sushi bar because “it is the most traditional way to drink sake and what Americans are most familiar with,” said Alan Miller, a co-founder of Filter.

While the primary message of the spot is the conviviality of sharing sake, Mr. Miller continued, the way that it “flows from scene to scene” is meant to demonstrate that sake is as versatile as other alcoholic beverages.

Ty Ku is based in Manhattan, but its sake is brewed in Japan. Andrew Chrisomalis, the chief executive of Ty Ku, said that while the sake itself was “authentic in the most important way, we want to promote a modern approach and spin.”

Americans typically encounter sake served hot in small porcelain cups, or cold in shotlike glasses, which may lend to a misperception that it packs a wallop.

“When people see what looks like a shot glass, they think of something as a harsh whiskey or some other high-proof spirit,” Mr. Chrisomalis said. “But the truth is that sake is brewed much more like beer and is consumed much more like white wine.”

Most Ty Ku sake varieties are 15 percent alcohol by volume, slightly more potent than most wine and slightly less potent than most fortified wines like sherry and Marsala.

In the new commercial, as with most of its marketing material, the brand shows the sake served chilled and in wine glasses, and directs restaurants and bars where it is carried to do likewise.

“It helps relate to you that it’s O.K. to drink four ounces at a time,” Mr. Chrisomalis said.

Ty Ku has a 3.3 percent share of United States sake market, according to Nielsen data cited by the brand. In 2012, it sold about 100,000 cases, equal to what it had sold in the preceding five years combined. Ty Ku projects it will double to 200,000 cases this year.

Such rosy projections are based on recent successes the brand has had with retail distribution. Mr. Green joined other owners to successfully pitch retailers including Target, Kroger and Walgreens, according to Mr. Chrisomalis.

To announce a promotional partnership with Patti Stanger, who stars on “The Millionaire Matchmaker” on Bravo, a 2012 news release from the brand quotes Ms. Stanger, who also became a part owner, as saying, “The Ty Ku sake portfolio is low calorie, gluten-free, sulfite-free and tannin-free, so it fits my healthy lifestyle.”

A 2010 news release announcing a similar equity and promotional partnership with Perez Hilton quotes Mr. Hilton as saying he had switched from vodka to Ty Ku “because these products are low calorie and I can enjoy without guilt!”

And in an appearance on the “Rachael Ray Show” in October, Mr. Green described the brand as “healthy,” and Ms. Ray added with a laugh, “I love feeling good about the cocktail because it makes you feel even better about the second.”

Alcohol Justice, an industry watchdog group, opposes alcohol brands promoting associations with weight loss and wellness. “It’s problematic because there’s a tendency to overindulge in a product when it’s considered low calorie,” said Michael J. Scippa, an Alcohol Justice spokesman. “As long as there’s still alcohol in it, they run the risk of causing health problems rather than solving them.”

With varieties that retail for $17 to $65 for a bottle roughly the size of a .750-liter wine bottle, Ty Ku is poised for what Mr. Chrisomalis called the “premiumization” of the sake category. He cited as a model the way Patrón, introduced in 1989, spurred a trend for premium tequila.

“We want to be the first premium sake call brand,” Mr. Chrisomalis said. “Like someone says, ‘I’ll have a Patrón’ or Jack Daniels, or Johnnie Walker, we want them to say, ‘I’ll have a Ty Ku.’ ”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/22/business/media/a-national-push-seeks-to-separate-sake-from-sushi.html?partner=rss&emc=rss