Scottish whisky brand Auchentoshan launched a social-media led competition to engage a tough business audience.
Morrison Bowmore Distillers – part of the Suntory Group – is a Scottish whisky distillers comprising of just 200 people. Auchentoshan is one of its Scottish malt whisky brands but following a recent repositioning, the distillers wanted to increase knowledge, engagement, advocacy and stock among bartenders and mixologists of two key ‘expressions’ of Auchentoshan: Classic and Three Wood. This hard-to-engage audience decide what is listed in bars, support new products, invent new drinks and advocate products to end customers.
The challenge for Auchentoshan was to create brand advocates out of this target audience without the use of a massive budget such as those boasted by the likes of Smirnoff and Bacardi. The distillers couldn’t throw bigger parties, offer larger prizes, roll out more advertising or give the vast discounts of these bigger brands. The solution was therefore to offer these business customers something money couldn’t buy, and use social channels to beat the big boys at their own game.
Audience insight
Competing with bigger brands meant getting to know how Auchentoshan’s target audience really worked. Research showed bartenders and mixologists didn’t just view their job as a nine-to-five role; they saw it as a ‘calling’ – they are the chefs of the drinks world and love learning about new drinks and flavour combinations.
In particular, the research revealed mixologists enjoyed going to other top bars, particularly outside their own area or country, to learn new techniques, as well as showing off their skills among the bartender community.
The distillers came up with a creative concept based on a competition, which would help bartenders achieve their biggest professional goals: let them further their careers, learn new techniques and show off to their peers.
The prize was a ‘switch’, whereby one winning bartender from the UK and one from the US would get to work for a period of time in one of the top bars in 69 Colebrooke Row in London and Apotheke in New York (the equivalent of a season in a top Michelin-starred kitchen).
Active participation
The campaign was devised and executed with social media agency Yomego and centred on a microsite that integrated with a YouTube channel. Mixologists had to create two drinks ‘with a twist’: old-fashioned versions (using one of the two main Auchentoshan expressions) and lemonade. The bartenders then uploaded videos of their tutorials for making these drinks to the microsite.
Entrants were shortlisted by a well-regarded judging panel to just 40 finalists – with 20 places going to UK bartenders, and 20 to US bartenders. One place from each group went to the entrant with the most YouTube views.
These 40 finalists were then further whittled down to two winners (one each from the UK and US) in finals in LA and London. These winners made their ‘switch’ in May 2012.
The campaign was promoted through a number of social channels. The brand used Facebook wall posts and advertising to increase awareness and participation. Auchentoshan also used blogger outreach – knowing that mixologists regularly engaged with industry blogs. Outreach began with general drinks blogs and then took a geographic approach, e.g. when someone from New York entered, Auchentoshan approached New York bloggers. The brand also interacted on trade forums and posted content about the competitions.
Beyond expectations
The campaign asked a lot of its entrants – inventing cocktails and uploading video is a big request. As such, Auchentoshan had expected a total of around 60 entries – approximately 30 from each country. However, the brand’s expectations were blown away when almost three times that number – 163 people – entered.
As part of the sign-up process, Auchentoshan asked entrants whether their bar stocked either Auchentoshan Classic or the Three Wood expressions. Via its network of regional reps and agents, the brand could directly attribute new listings among the bars involved. While exact numbers remain confidential due to the sensitive nature of the information, Auchentoshan has achieved more than double the number of listings it was targeting.
The UK winner, Martin Ball from Corridor in Manchester, created two cocktails that are now permanent fixtures on his bar’s cocktail menu. Both host bars and winning mixologists are running a series of further events with Auchentoshan, and are keen to do even more. Due to its success, the campaign will run again in 2013.
Commenting on the campaign, Joe Hughes, digital marketing manager at Morrison Bowmore Distillers, said, “This campaign was a chance for us to see how social media could perform in engaging our most important B2B audience – the mixologists that influence public opinion and palates, and ultimately drive stocking policies in their bars.
“The campaign delivered so well – we saw amazing results on everything from engagement right down to directly attributable listings. This has given us the confidence to run the campaign again this year – and to make it bigger and better. The results are unarguable.”
