An Every-Man’s Drink
I was approached by Ann Arbor Distilling Company (AADC) with their idea of creating a small campaign for the release of their new whiskey and I gladly accepted. The idea that they had was that the whiskey would serve as the start of a sub-brand of the company, as they mostly focused on, and were known for, gin. The whiskey was set to launch in one month and had yet to be advertised publicly up until that point.
I started to arrange meetings to discuss what the audience and perception of this whiskey could and would be. As well as a content plan to start rolling out targeted advertisements that I also needed to create. Once we agreed on the tone and voice of this product and sub-brand, I got to work on deliverable content.
AADC wanted to roll out a short video ad and a looping video ad by the time of the launch, as well as a longer video ad to use on their website. I got to work storyboarding the long video first with the idea that the smaller ads would be compacted versions of the larger one, in order to convey the same theme and message but also have differences to mix things up. Once storyboarded, a shooting schedule was coordinated with all parties involved to shoot a majority of the video in a single day.
While the primary shooting day went on, I scheduled times and locations to also do product photography so that photos could be rolled out as teasers for the whiskey while the rest of production went on in the background. This gave us a more consistent and gradual increase in content as we began to approach the release date.
After a few rounds of editing the videos were looking how AADC was hoping. Conveying a message of community, fair trade, relationships and quality. To help boost sharing and presence online, I began generating ideas for taglines to accompany the product.
The short and looping videos then rolled out online and began circulating in time for the release. With a successful launch, we began thinking about how to continue using the content created and keep the sales rolling. With the 4th of July just around the corner, I had an idea.
“Couldn’t be happier with the finished product.”
Circling back to the taglines, we settled on “Find your Campfire”. This would be used in targeted ads to promote sales during the upcoming holiday. By taking the original video and including the new tagline, we managed to generate attention online to the camping audience of Michigan and portions of the Midwest.
To really push the camping theme, I collaborated with an in-house designer to create some limited-time-only mugs and clothing. Consumers could then buy a bottle, some merchandise and then post on their social media with our new hashtag, #FindYourCampfire. Something simple and fun to promote the holiday sale. Here’s some of my favorite posts I’ve seen online since it began:
With the project turning into a major success after a month’s effort, I collected my free bottle and began talks with AADC about a new product coming down the pipeline. Stay tuned for something a little fancier next time around!