In the UK, Baileys Irish Cream Liqueur has strong brand associations as a grown-up treat that’s enjoyed at Christmas.   

But one, shared cultural moment a year does not a growth strategy make.  

Baileys’ challenge (and hence ours) was to create new associations with other moments of treating throughout the year. 

There is one under-represented group for whom Halloween has long been a day of freedom and acceptance.  

The LGBTQ+ community.

So much so, that Halloween has been affectionately embraced as “Gay Christmas”.

A Halloween campaign that celebrated LGBTQ+ culture would feel like a natural extension of a cultural moment the community already regarded as their own.

It would allow Diageo to use its creative/media spend to support under-represented voices.

And to Baileys’ 1834 target audience - who were more likely to consume the brand at Halloween - it would send a message of inclusion that reflected their own world view.

The result was a campaign where we’d turn Halloween into HallowQween, championing LGBTQ+ talent and media platforms whilst targeting progressively-minded Gen Z’ers.

And for HallowQween, we put our budget where our mouth was, spending planning 51% of the campaign’s budget against LGBTQ+ content and media platforms.

Our Baileys ‘HalloQweens’ were UK drag stars Tia Kofi, Veronica Green and Asia Thorne - three glamorous Qweens enjoying Baileys as an indulgent Halloween treat.

20” TV/AV content ran across Broadcast VOD, Online Video & Social, where we placed the HallowQweens in a hand-selected range of LGBTQ+ programming (including hit BAFTA-winning drama It’s a Sin).

LGBTQ+ specific Twitter video partners - including influential LGBTQ+ media brand Pink News and MTV, ran our HallowQweens against progressive content.

Our three HallowQweens were brought to life on hand-painted murals in key LGBTQ+ areas. The murals included glitter and glow-in-the-dark UV paint, to create optimum eye-catching sparkle and stand out.

The HallowQweens also attended a special event in central London launching the Baileys Halloween “Choc-tail”

Finally, we partnered with London social guide, Secret London, to showcase the ingredients to the perfect Halloween Night in a range of party, costume and cocktail content.

Our HallowQween campaign was seen by 39M adults (73% of UK) and received 202 pieces of PR coverage.

On top of this, we gained a huge amount of Earned reach e.g. Our HallowQweens reposting of the murals collectively reached >500k followers 

But did we succeed in creating a new treat association moment for Baileys?

Our post-campaign brand tracking results certainly suggest so:

YOY brand awareness increased +9% 

there were 2m+ Baileys drinkers during October 2022

and Penetration increased +22.7% - a significant shift for a brand of this size when establishing a new occasion.