Pandemic spirits sales were up +32%. And while Americans had every intention drink the booze they bought, amid the new normal they had no time to actually enjoy it. They were grasping at any chance to sit down and sip a cocktail, but with the lack of established pre-pandemic routines, no consistent time or space existed for it.

In our new reality, time seemed blurry, and living and working in the same space was causing a strain on our mental health. With society now working 35% longer, cocktail rituals were lost. Beam Suntory needed to give whisky drinkers a reason to choose Maker’s Mark, reclaim some of that important time for themselves, and increase brand favorability +20% in order to continue 2020’s sales momentum.

“The Show Next Door with Randall Park” is a unique take on the traditional talk show format. The series takes place in Randall’s “living room” after he’s done “working” for the day. The show features jokes, games and Randall enjoying cocktails with his celebrity friends. This funny, upbeat program captures the spirit of having drinks with friends – something we were all missing during the pandemic

Social listening showed that people wanted entertaining content that was fun, witty, and comforting, and gives them an excuse to reward themselves after a long day of working from home. At the height of the pandemic, shining examples of this content included are Stanley Tucci going live on social making homemade cocktails with his followers or John Krasinski hosting Some Good News with people tuning in like it was appointment viewing. Our strategy was to tap into this desire and bring the Maker’s Hour moment to life in the comfort of people’s homes and on the biggest screen in the house – their TV.

We created The Show Next Door to meet people where they were: their living rooms and on the biggest screen the household. The final product was premium entertainment worthy of consumers’ extended engagement. The show was exclusive to The Roku Channel and allowed us to reach streamers regardless of whether they were watching ad-supported or subscription-only content.

Each episode opens with Randall Park creating a Maker’s Mark cocktail while delivering a monologue. Guests with diverse voices joined Park for interviews, including actor Tony Hale, famous drag queen/musician Trixie Mattel, NFL Hall of Famer, Terrell Owens, musician Jason Mraz, director Mark Duplass, and others. The show ran from July through September with new episodes weekly. Six episodes were created in total.

The Show Next Door drove a +25% lift in Maker’s brand favorability, achieving a key campaign goal.

The Show Next Door was the first-ever branded content series to be treated as native, organic content within The Roku Channel, running right alongside other produced entertainment programs.

In total, 42 thousand hours were spent streaming The Show Next Door on the Roku Channel, an average of 7 thousand total hours per episode.

The Show Next Door was Roku’s #7 show in the comedy category for September out of 150+ shows.

And the audience – made up of 61% cord-cutters - was engaged, with 60% of viewers who started an episode streaming the entire show.

As content created to live on a streaming platform alongside other produced shows, The Show Next Door was touted in various articles as best-in-class marketing on streaming, helping it earn 57 million total press impressions across 23 publications