It’s an exciting time for young Africans. Afro-optimism is spiking, and 65% of 18-24-year-olds think ‘the 21st Century will be the African century’ (source: African Youth Survey 2020).

However, as young people become proud to call themselves African, they are increasingly looking for content and stories that reflect their cultural identity.

That’s where global brands often fail them.

Typically, global content at scale misunderstands the cultural nuances across the African continent and the subtle differences that exist between countries.

This is where Johnnie Walker saw an opportunity to connect.

The Scotch Whisky brand has always been defiantly optimistic and a champion of progress – just like young Africans.

In fact, its rallying cry of ‘Keep Walking’ has been inspiring people to push boundaries and taste more out of life for over two decades.

To help Johnnie Walker grow in Africa, we needed to insert this message into the local conversation.

To promote the film, our media strategy would be nuanced across the continent, using tailored creative, and the best channels in each region to reach premium drinkers.

For most Africans, this is still TV. While digital is the fastest-growing channel across the continent, average penetration is 52%. TV reaches almost everyone – 83%.

But there are two major challenges with TV: First, there is no ‘one size fits all’ broadcasting solution; and second, many countries don’t allow alcohol advertising before 9pm, missing primetime.

To overcome these challenges, we would partner with Africa’s two largest TV networks – DSTV and Canal+ to syndicate the film across their relevant channels.

This cross-network alliance would be a continental first.

We would support the film with co-branded trailers in primetime and share cutdowns and clips online.

We would also work with local social influencers to unlock incremental reach, engagement, and shared and earned media.

In a continental media first, we brought two competing TV networks together to air the film in primetime, across 16 different TV channels in 13 countries.

Crucially, to ensure the film resonated with locals, we cut the documentary it into two languages and created over 40 different promotional cuts to adhere to local market requirements and drive relevance by showcasing local talent.

We supported the film with 1,000+ localised trailers.

Additionally, we ran country-relevant product spots in ad breaks showcasing Johnnie Walker’s biggest campaigns.

We also ran the film on digital channels with programmatic pre-roll trailers on YouTube --

the first time programmatic was employed at scale across the continent.

To drive online chat, we worked with 26 local influencers to engage their audiences and push them to watch.

Finally, to create a physical presence in our target markets, we put quotes from locally relevant influencers on billboards in cities.

‘The Ones Who…’ catapulted Johnnie Walker into African culture – driving continental sales up +19%.

Media results:

Across TV and digital, 64M people in 13 countries saw our campaign.

The film generated 1,000 pieces of pan-continental press coverage – reaching a further 10.8M people.

Our social influencers created 200 posts, generating 1.1M impressions and reaching 198K people.

As a result, 3.7M watched the full 50-minute film.

Incredibly, premium drinkers watched our content for 5.2M+ hours – equivalent to 594 years!

Brand impact:

Now, Africa is walking with Johnnie Walker.

29% of premium drinkers in Mozambique and Angola said Johnnie Walker is their preferred brand – a significant lead over Jameson (17%).

Kenya saw positive salience and trial shifts, and Johnnie Walker was the most talked about whisky brand in Ghana.

As a result, more people are buying.

In total, Johnnie Walker sales have grown by +19% across the continent.