Great ideas often find a way to turn a negative into a positive. This idea is one of those.

Growing up in the USA, Hispanic Americans are often asked “Are you American or are you Hispanic?” – making them feel they didn’t belong to either culture.

Buchanan’s, an immigrant whisky with deep affinity in Latin America, turned this tension into a superpower. "LA NACIÓN 200%" Campaign celebrates the unique strength of being both 100% Hispanic and 100% American.

This became a strategy that pushed the brand forward and advanced the cultural conversation around what it means to have dual heritage.

Buchanan’s is a brand born in Scotland in 1884, yet loved throughout Latin America ever since James Buchanan first took his whisky there. And there is a large Hispanic American diaspora in the USA (62 million people, representing almost 20% of the population). Buchanan’s wanted to further strengthen its connection with this group, so it set out to understand how Hispanic Americans felt about their dual heritage, especially around the upcoming 2022 World Cup – a moment where Hispanic Americans tune in to celebrate their heritage and identity.

To drive authenticity and accuracy, a full project team (Agency, Brand, Production) was created with diverse Hispanic American representation, along with extensive audience research.

We needed to find an insight to connect with our audience and then create a striking way to bring it to life on the biggest, most relevant stage possible.

Despite its long historical ties with Latin America, Buchanan's still had relatively low penetration (less than 10%) amongst the huge 62 million diaspora living in the USA. Buchanan’s aim was to strengthen and deepen the brand’s relationship with this vast and diverse audience, by showing empathy and a true understanding of how they felt about their dual heritage.

The 2022 World Cup was a key moment for Buchanan’s, since it was a big consumption opportunity, and most importantly, a chance to show the Brand’s understanding and empathy around a huge passion point for our audience. Hispanic Americans are soccer lovers; 70% are more likely to watch games than the general population. Buchanan’s set the objective of creating an idea that could help Hispanic Americans celebrate their dual identity, instead of feeling the need to choose between the two.

The Hispanic American diaspora is complex, diverse, layered, and nuanced. Hispanic identity means different things to different heritage groups and generations.

We set up a full project team with representation from all Hispanic American groups (including but not limited to Mexican, Argentinian, Ecuadorian, Puerto Rican, Costa Rican, Colombian and Brazilian American cohorts). Then we set about conducting extensive ethnographic research to validate and ground all thinking in authenticity and truth.

We expected to find many differences in attitudes and behaviors given the disparate nature of the audience. Indeed we did, but we also uncovered a deep underlying truth shared by many. They felt pressure to choose between assimilating as an American or embracing their Hispanic heritage, when what they really wanted was to be recognized for their true cultural duality: both fully 100% Hispanic and 100% American, and for the contribution they make to American culture.

Buchanan’s encouraged Hispanic Americans to proudly embrace both sides of their identity, and turn this duality into a unique strength.

They called them 200%ers – 100% Hispanic. 100% American. A celebration of the spirit of those who embrace their full 200% selves. A cultural program made for and by Hispanic Americans.

Not a choice, but the best of both worlds.

The idea was brought to life on the world’s biggest stage - the 2022 World Cup.

Under the banner of LA NACIÓN 200%, Buchanan's gave a Spanglish twist to the famous US National Team's chant “I believe that we will win”. Four films were created, each customized to a Latin American Country, with their own bespoke cocktail, and aired every time that team played.

A 200% streetwear collection was created, watch parties hosted and stories of local heroes and star athletes celebrating the strength of 200% duality were shared online.

We achieved a reach of 250M+ people and was covered in almost 500 publications creating 330M impressions with a further 293M social media impressions.

We saw an +84bps increase in category share and a +10.4% increase in penetration of Hispanic Americans.

All of which catapulted Buchanan’s to the fastest growing Scotch in the USA.

During the World Cup period, brand awareness increased by +13 percentage points. Perceptions of Buchanan’s as an exciting brand rose from 14% to 25%. Perceptions as a brand consumers would be proud to choose rose from 19% to 27%.

The $1M grant pledged by Buchanan’s to support the 200% community will fuel the future of Hispanic Americans over the next five years.

And most importantly, the idea enabled Hispanic Americans to feel proud to be seen as 100% Hispanic and 100% American and advanced the cultural conversation around what it means to be dual heritage.

Hispanic Americans make up almost 20% of the US population. Despite being a sizable minority, they still struggle with their cultural identity, sometimes feeling as though they no longer belong where they originally came from, nor in the country where they now live.

This struggle is well summed by ESPN+ Futbol pundits Herculez Gomez and Sebastian Salazar, “For many years I talk about how Mexican Americans, not only in the sport but in this country, feel like they’re neither from here and neither from there.” It can result in them feeling pressure to choose between one or the other, rather than embracing all that they are.