Jim Beam needed to launch NZ’s first white whiskey - Jacob’s Ghost - a new product in a new category segment in a declining overall market with significant competition. With a relatively limited budget, traditional media wasn’t going to cut it.

Brand equity was no sure bet of success in our market. We needed to find a smart way of driving reach at scale that maximised earned media so we concentrated our efforts on real brand influencers and used them to amplify our messaging cost-effectively and creatively.

We started by letting the ghost loose through smart native placements such as a haunted bottle auction on NZ’s largest auction site TradeMe and ghost sighting videos on relevant blogs and social networks to create intrigue.

Then using an influential brand advocate database we had built by tracking the impact of brand fans’ social sharing over time, we initiated a highly targeted direct marketing campaign to spark conversation and encourage trial of the product.

Finally, we claimed ownership of the ghost sightings and amplified through social video, providing a clear call to action to try new Jacob's Ghost.

The unbranded Trade Me auction was seeded through native placements across websites and social pages with a reach of 220,000 and over 6,300 interactions.

The unbranded ghost sighting videos had a reach of over 630,000 and over 23,000 user initiated video plays while 5000 sharers distributed content on our behalf.

When we took ownership of the ghost sighting, we had 40,000 completed user initiated plays of the big reveal.

Total campaign interactions exceeded 150,000, from a total a budget of under NZD $40,000. Thanks to this campaign, Jacob’s Ghost exceeded six month targets by 38%… in just three months.