The Maker's Mark Cocktail Party was a 360º communications platform that leveraged the hype and hysteria of the 2012 Presidential campaign to deliver a very salient message about Maker's Mark — that it is an extremely mixable bourbon that makes any cocktail better — in a timely, relevant and humorous way. The creative spark was that in a year where the two main parties are pulling people so far apart, there ought to be a party that brings us all together — hence the Cocktail Party and its proud representative Maker's Mark, that makes all the disparate elements of a cocktail live together in delicious harmony.

As far as we know, no other brand has ever sent out gift boxes disguised as packages for cat weights, body hair sculpting tools, or 'vintage fruitcake'.

Although it is one of the icons of the spirits category, Maker’s Mark is a brand that doesn't take itself too seriously. The only thing we really take seriously is making the whisky.

The goal of our annual holiday gift is not to drive sales, but to sincerely let our best customers know how much we appreciate them. The thousands of letters, emails and Facebook and Twitter messages we received from them tells us that we hit the mark. But, at the end of 2012 the brand was up 18% in case volume, far exceeding both our forecasts and nearly doubling the category as a whole.