Getting Into The Spirits

Our client is the World's #1 Bourbon Whiskey, with over 200 years of tradition driving their classic, All-American spirit.

Spirits and beer have long lived in their own respective categories - but our client saw an opportunity to further extend their consumer's drinking occasions. They wanted to position themselves as a classic alternative to beers while still being nearly as simple as popping open a seltzer. Internationally, the brand launched their "Need A Break From Beer" campaign to showcase their simple Highball cocktail as an easy, light option that may have been overlooked by consumers grabbing a beer instead.

Their US market team was skeptical the same message would resonate in the United States. They were looking to test the campaign message in a smaller portion of the United States before launching a national campaign across such a beer-occasion nation.

Our client tasked VizSense with a 45 day campaign to drive brand awareness in the All-American, beer loving state of Texas, showcasing the Highball as a classic drink for the upcoming football and holiday season.

VizSense conducted in-depth market research to deploy a winning campaign strategy. We analyzed over 10,000 data points across 8,000 conversations and reviews on our client and 9 of their primary bourbon or whiskey competitors, secondary beer competitors, and tertiary ready-to-drink competitors. VizSense was then able to deploy a highly curated campaign strategy to align with our research and insights.

INFLUENCER STRATEGY: To test their "Need A Break From Beer" message, we targeted a variety of Texas influencers -- from Beerfluencers to Texas Sports Fanatics -- who would commonly attend occasions with beer as the drink of choice.

MESSAGE STRATEGY: Our research showed that the main driver for individuals choosing beer or seltzers over hard liquor as their drink of choice was the ease and simplicity of the RTD options. We had our influencers share how simple the highball is to make, while still being just as light and refreshing as a hard seltzer so that you can take a much needed break from 'heavier' beer.

CONTENT STRATEGY: Because the timeframe aligned with the upcoming holidays and key seasonal events, we deployed a strategy and timeline to align posting content on or around major occasions to drive awareness of the signature recipe as the perfect, simple drink for everybody to enjoy. Our influencers were encouraged to create a variety of content for occasions that would involve drinking a few beers, from having a casual drink to celebrating Halloween, tailgating for big games, or gathering for Thanksgiving and Christmas.