The Dewar’s creative approach was to go beyond the banner and integrate the brand within publisher environments by surrounding utilities and relevant content areas with subtle branding. Operating from a classic, vintage visual aesthetic with direct “Dewarism” quotes from company founder Tommy Dewar, the creative look and feel worked to highlight the brand’s history, wit and authenticity. Simple logos with “brought to you by Dewar’s” copy were used for utility sponsorships in order to maintain focus on the content itself and not saturate the user with branding. Custom creative that incorporated publisher messaging was developed for a premiere ONN video sponsorship, and positioned Dewar’s amongst The Onion audience as a witty and clever brand.

Quantitative measurements like CTR are not an accurate success metric against this target. Therefore, qualitative results such as press pick-up, blog postings and buzz provide insight into the target’s positive response to online efforts. Product sales for Dewar’s White Label increased during an overall decline within the brown-spirit category.