In 2020, Johnnie Walker had stabilized its position in the US Scotch category after a period of decline, but our sights were set on winning share in the vibrant, modern and aspirational world of Whiskey. While women accounted for 59% of whiskey purchases and 66% of whiskey growth, Johnnie Walker massively under-indexed against this audience versus the whiskey category.

Our job was to come up with an idea that could continue proving Johnnie Walker’s commitment to progress and the idea of “Keep Walking” by becoming the most talked about brand championing gender equality. To do this, we needed to earn disproportionate media attention to drive relevance, meaning and dynamism around the issues of gender equality and the brand’s support of those causes. In that context, we needed to ensure women whiskey drinkers were aware of Johnnie Walker’s role in pushing gender equality forward, while feeling invited to participate.

Jane Walker ‘First Women’: a platform amplifying and contributing to pioneering female voices and causes in the pursuit of equality.

We approached the platform in three ways:

-Documenting past achievements to inspire future progress: According to a survey conducted by the Women’s History Congressional Commission, 95% of people do not believe that America’s museums adequately tell the story of women’s contributions and experiences6.

-Amplifying the voices leading the way: Celebrating pioneering figures pushing boundaries towards an equal future across industries and communities.

-Enabling future progress: Driving meaningful action and supporting groundbreaking organizations such as the ERA coalition board and iFundWomen.

The primary objective was to earn disproportionate media attention. To do so, Johnnie Walker put in place a powerful formula made up of three forces: a cultural moment (inject into culture), influence (amplify), and real-action (invite).

With a human rights message at its core, we had to identify a moment that would meaningfully inject and launch the message into culture. In order to spread the word on the program in a buzzy and authentic way, a healthy mix of credible news publications, influencers, and organizations was imperative. Finally, we needed a call-to-action that would inspire women to feel seen and want to participate. To redirect towards progress, we sought out a partner who was already known for creating more opportunities for women to achieve monumental firsts and who could ultimately house a grant program.

In partnership with our First Women Network, we penned an Open Letter in the NY Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. The letter aimed to empower people to celebrate the many ground-breaking achievements of women and to participate in creating opportunities for women to achieve more firsts. With iFundWomen, we funded projects identified in collaboration with our First Women Network to support those on their journey towards a monumental first. Details about the partnership and the grant recipients are available at ifundwomen.com/janewalker. Following the Open Letter, Jane Walker released custom video content with our First Women Network, encouraging women to apply for grants and toasting to the monumental firsts women achieved in 2020. The content was shared on brand and talent social channels. The First Women Network participated in top-tier media interviews to outlets that spanned categories including Billboard, Business Insider, Forbes, HOLA!, People, and Woman’s Day.

Jane Walker ‘First Women’ earned 636.2M media impressions with over 130 placements in top tier media. iFundWomen shared 52 social posts and received 3M impressions. 96% of social commentary was positive. All of this made Johnnie Walker the year’s #1 brand for earned share of voice against 22 other measured spirit brands. For example, Jack Daniels spends 130% more in media than Johnnie Walker. In addition, The Jane Walker ‘First Women’ program funded 30 women-founded businesses through the iFundWomen partnership. 27,000 visitors went to the site and some 5,500 people received training in negotiations to help as they funded and developed their own ventures.

In regards to our target: Johnnie Walker saw +10% lift in emotional engagement, +8% lift in distinction, +6.3% in taste and +4% in dynamism with women drinkers in F21. We also closed the gap to whiskey competitors, especially brands like Jack Daniels and Woodford Reserve from the seemingly more dynamic whiskey category. This contributed to a successful increase in volume contribution to the Johnnie Walker brand as a whole.

In FY20, Johnnie Walker had experienced a decline in share growth of -28bps in the whiskey category. In F21, this had been dramatically turned into whiskey category share growth of +5bps in rolling 12-month data, and +13bps share growth and 12.3% increase in RSV in rolling 3-month data. This performance in whiskey growth was delivered while also furthering the brand’s lead in Scotch, with +23bps growth in Scotch share for the Johnnie Walker Trademark.