There’s nothing new about a “Win a Car” competition. The trick was to find the car that was right for Bushmills, given that the strategy is “True Character”. The MGB felt right: it has a good reputation, is popular, looks unique, and still had a measure of craftsmanship. We made it look messier than it was, but also put 300 000 rand into the nuts-and-bolts restoration. It allowed us an unusual proposition of, essentially, “Win a wreck”. We could maintain interest by featuring the restoration on the web.

Over the 2 months, Bushmills sales grew by 57%, from some 400 cases to 700 cases. 5529 entries came from On-Con, but the 2161 entries from Off-Con are more significant because they involved buying a 750ml bottle. The total of 2471 unique consumers averaged 3.2 drinks each; and there were 915 website registrations of which 36% were unique consumers. These figures were well above any previously recorded numbers for similar promotions.