To get them to own the drink, first we let them own the bar.

Drambuie was a brand teetering on the brink. It was unfashionable, and only consumed by grandparents at Christmas. So the brief from McWilliam’s Wines, distributor of Drambuie in Australia, was to reinvigorate the brand by introducing it to a new generation of drinkers - the lucrative Gen Y market.

Our response was to develop a deep consumer program that engaged opinion leaders, inspired them to start talking and reactivate the brand in market.

Gen Y’s often dream about living a different life and escaping the daily grind.

With this in mind we created a competition ‘The Premise’ which gave Gen Y’s one shot to create and run their own bar.

We started by building a website and put out a call for entries through numerous media channels. Word soon spread and entries began pouring in. 5 lucky finalists were flown to Sydney to present their idea’s to the jury, and once the winner was chosen, the bar was built at a secret Sydney location. On October 8, Sydney’s newest, coolest bar opened.

The Premise website achieved over 25,000 unique site visits, and visits to the bar exceeded capacity every night – during the 9 hedonistic nights that the bar existed, over 6000 people visited the bar, with over 3000 new trials of Drambuie.

Opinion leaders and tipping point Gen Y’s had been engaged. The resurrection of Drambuie had begun.  

Awards

• 2 Gold, 1 Silver - W3 Awards, 2010
• 1 Silver, Microsite - BAD Awards, 2010
• Finalist ‘Best Advertising or Marketing’ - 2010 AIMIA Awards
• Featured in The Work 2011