Baileys challenged us to make Baileys Chocolate their biggest launch to date. They also wanted to reach a younger, multicultural audience rather than their typical 45+ demographic. However, they’ve never successfully hooked this audience in a culturally relevant way.

This audience drinks less than previous generations while being marketed to more. They are discerning about brands they engage with, seeing them as an extension of themselves. Rather than turning to drinking as a social occasion, they are looking for creative moments of playful indulgence that feel personal. So, a typical alcohol advertising campaign wouldn’t reach them.

But we knew chocolate would. Chocolate is often used as a vessel in creative ways. Creating novelty in chocolate was the genesis of Baileys Chocolate and became the strategy for launch. We wanted to show our next-gen audience that Baileys Chocolate was chocolate like never before: a creative twist on an iconic classic.

To unlock this next generation of Baileys consumers, we partnered with the Internet’s reigning King of Chocolate, Amaury Guichon. His elaborate chocolate creations have captured the hearts and imaginations of over 55 million members of our target audience.

For the launch of new Baileys Chocolate, we challenged him with his biggest creative project to date: to build an entire cocktail bar out of real Belgian chocolate. Amaury painstakingly crafted a bar, bar stools, bar tools, coasters, garnishes, and Baileys Chocolate bottles out of 100% Belgian chocolate. This realistic, edible bar then became the set for our hero film. Making of content was also created to garner more attention for the launch.

Guichon’s partnership then extended into other major chocolate moments, including the holidays and Valentine’s Day, where he crafted an oversized dessert version of the Baileys Chocolate Mocha Martini and an enormous Baileys Chocolate chocolate-covered strawberry.

One of the core objectives of Baileys Chocolate and its launch was to widen brand appeal to a younger, more multicultural audience than the typical 45+ year-old Baileys drinker.

This audience, ranging in age from 25-35, is inundated with content and messaging. This makes them far more discerning about which brands they engage with, as they see brands they choose as an extension of themselves. With Baileys not on their radars, we needed to find a way to be part of culture they care about.

The next-gen audience actively filters out seriousness and negativity by seeking experiences that they can make personal to them. Rather than turning to drinking as a social occasion, they are looking for creative moments of indulgence in their world. Their world is on social, so we needed to partner with an influencer who was all about indulgent play.

The making of The Chocolate Bar took place over the course of 10 days. Its creation was captured as social content while the bar itself was used as a set piece for the hero film. The making of and hero film were released on both Amaury Guichon’s and Baileys social channels.

The bar was also transported across country to be the actual bar for a launch party, where Amuary Guichon was a guest bartender. In addition to The Chocolate Bar, this ongoing partnership has led to the creation of two other successful pieces of social content for chocolate-centric moments of the holidays and Valentine’s Day.

This campaign and partnership launched September 1, 2023 and will continue for the next year.

This launch has been one of the most successful in the history of the brand, cementing its place in the portfolio while broadening its appeal to both a younger audience, as well as re-engaging lapsed Baileys drinkers.

This partnership currently has over 751.2 million earned media impressions and 102 million views. Since the launch of the campaign, market demand for Baileys Chocolate has increased by 91%. Baileys Chocolate was also the #1 new spirits product in Q3 of 2023, according to Drizly. The Chocolate Bar campaign and partnership has created cultural relevancy for the brand while driving conversion of our desired target audience.