As a brand, Johnnie Walker has been making a conscious strategic shift to engage and grow its younger audience. Knowing this younger audience is looking to brands to make more of a stand on the things that matter to them, particularly diversity and inclusion, the Keep Walking mantra has shifted to become a call to arms for collective progress. Acknowledging, supporting and celebrating the people, platforms and movements who are walking to push Australia, and the world, forward.

As part of its continued support of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Johnnie Walker tasked us with creating a brand experience with substance, authenticity, and integrity to voice its support for the LGBTQIA+ community. The challenge to us was to do more than just be a ‘logo’, but to provide genuine support, uplifting members of the community, their stories and their experiences.

In a world that’s more divided than ever, community and sense of belonging has never been more paramount, but despite being home to one of the biggest celebrations of Pride on the planet, many queer Australians have never attended The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The reasons they have yet to attend are nuanced and personal. They can be because of acceptance of their own identity, family pressure and conservatism, geographical, financial and even because of a fear for personal safety.

As a proud partner and official sponsor, Johnnie Walker wanted to empower people to come to their first ever Mardi Gras in 2024. So, we subverted the most iconic ‘coming out’ tradition there was, a Debutante Ball, and gave it a big, fabulous twist.

The Johnnie Walker Debutante Ball helped Mardi Gras First Timers take the first steps they thought they might never take, surrounded by their community.

We used earned media channels to drive brand meaning and awareness around Johnnie Walker’s continued support of the LGBTQIA+ community by utilising three key techniques:

National Search

Our national search was a consumer-facing earned moment, enabling us to secure tier one media and spark mainstream coverage.

Hero Talent

We unearthed breaking news of a ‘First Timer’ (Nat Bassingthwaighte) that was garnering media attention, and moved quickly to secure her to perform at the Deb Ball, further amplifying the national search.. We leveraged this in media pitching to secure coverage throughout the campaign.

Sustained Drumbeat

Diversifying our approach into multiple phases (national search, talent interviews, exclusive assets, ‘The Debutantes’ announcement) over the campaign period enabled us to sustain a drumbeat of coverage over 3 months. Outreach began ahead of Mardi Gras to build momentum for the Debutante Ball and highlight Johnnie Walker’s brand philosophy.

To bring The Debutante Ball to life, we partnered with icons of the first Mardi Gras in 1978, we released films inviting LGBTQIA+ people from across Australia who had never been to Mardi Gras, to attend for the first time. Thousands responded to our national search with heartfelt stories, including Australian music icon Nathalie Bassingwaithe who had recently come out herself. A diverse group of Debutantes from across Australia were then selected to come and make their debut. The debutantes were brought to Sydney and paired with stylists and make-up artists from the community to create a look that represented who they wanted to debut as. We then transformed an iconic queer landmark in Sydney into a grand queer-themed ballroom where our ‘Debs’ were announced to the community at large. The Johnnie Walker Debutante Ball experience formed the basis of a documentary film and a national OOH and Social Campaign.

Hailed as creating “a new and heartwarming chapter for Mardi Gras”, The Johnnie Walker Debutante Ball made waves both around Australia, as well as reaching international audiences resulting in:

* Total Impressions: 336.69M

* Number of pieces of earned coverage: 154

Quality of coverage:

* 100% of coverage was positive in sentiment

* 97.6% of coverage featured our first key message

* 93% of coverage featured our second key message

* 87.6% of coverage featured our third key message