Cannes Lions

THE BAR THAT JACK BUILT

RED AGENCY, Sydney / BROWN FORMAN / 2015

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Overview

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Credits

Overview

Description

In Australia the Jack Daniel's brand is losing relevance and market share to new craft whiskies. It needed to increase its relevance and deepen engagement with its core drinkers - middle-aged blue collar "down to earth" blokes who like spending their spare time doing DIY jobs or using tools in their sheds.

Our job was to reinforce the values and heritage that makes Jack Daniel's so special and distinctive by reminding these core drinkers what makes the brand different - Jack the man. Someone they relate to and who they've grown up with.

On a small budget we created a campaign that would use Jack Daniel's birthday to host a unique experience for lovers of the brand. A chance to work for Jack, have a drink and be part of one memorable party.

We created the world's first crowd-sourced bar "The Bar That Jack Built". A social media and word-of-mouth campaign, offering people the chance to come and work for Jack – literally – by helping build an entire bar from scratch to celebrate Jack Daniel's 148th birthday. And then to join us at the bar opening. But we didn't have any cash to pay people. So, we offered something better - whiskey!

The campaign built our Facebook page by over 10,000, hugely increased social engagement and had a notable impact on sales. But more importantly, for just 268 bottles of whiskey (or $6,356.96), we built a new bar and had an epic celebratory birthday party with our loyal fans.

Execution

• We launched a 6 week campaign to urge fans to help us build the bar. As soon as we started receiving volunteers and materials, we started building the bar.

• Everything was crowd-sourced, from the bar itself to the workforce, collection trucks, event invitations, entertainment on the night, including a few bands and a juggler!

• 3 of the campaign’s 6 content films were also crowd-sourced, which were themselves a shout-out for volunteers to get involved and so people could follow the bar as it was being made from scratch.

• The more items, materials, time or expertise people volunteered, the more Jack Daniel’s they received, along with a ticket to the big Birthday bash event.

• The project generated significant interest with fans sharing with their friends, families and work colleagues.

• We also started to get contacted by groups to join the bar building team.

Outcome

• $178,000 of donated time, materials and expertise

• 300 fans received tickets to the bar opening night for contributors

• 263% more engagement than previous years campaigns

• Over 5,000 shares

• Campaign videos reached 80,000+ people

• 15+ pieces of earned media coverage (100% positive), reaching over 1 million

• Not bad for 268 bottles of whiskey (or $6,356.96)

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