The Bar That Jack Built
Brown-Forman Australia
Issue 34 | March 2015
Agency
Arnold Furnace/Red Agency
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Tom Spicer Creative Team Luke Duggan Cameron Brown
Production Team
Production Co. Filmgraphics Entertainment Director Dylan Harrison Producer Nikki Hardy
Other Credits
Client Services Director Michael Stevenson Group Account Director Ian Hartley Senior Account Manager Natalia Kowalczyk Account Manager Belinda Bennett TV Production Melissa Petryszyn Production Bridget Brice Media Strategy Tom Hosking, Society Media Strategy Declan O’Dwyer, UM Head of Experiential, Red Agency Nigel Hickey Red Agency, Junior Producer Stephanie santos Brand Manager, Jack Daniel’s Family of Brands Nora-Kate O’Connell Jack Daniel’s Event Manager Charley Casey Jack Daniel’s Digital Community Manager Shane O’Brien
Date
September 2014
Background
With an explosion of new craft whiskey brands at one end of the shelf, and big-spending competitors at the other, Jack Daniel's was losing prominence. The brief was to create a cost-effective digital campaign for whiskey-loving, 40+ blue collar blokes with little time for selfies and hashtags.
Idea
The Bar That Jack Built was the world's first crowd-sourced bar. A six-week social media and word-of-mouth campaign offered people the chance to come and work for Jack, literally. If they helped build a bar to celebrate Mr. Jack Daniel's 148th birthday, they would be rewarded with whiskey in exchange.
The more materials, time or expertise they volunteered, the more Jack Daniel's they received (along with a ticket to the grand opening). Everything was crowd-sourced, from the bar itself to the workforce, from the collection trucks, event invitations, entertainment on the night to even three of the campaign's six content films, which were themselves a shout-out for other volunteers to get involved.
Results
- $178,000 of donated time, materials and expertise.
- $84,500 in earned media.
- 263% more engagement than the previous year's campaign.
- Idea rolling out nationwide in 2015.
Our Thoughts
Excuse the pun, but you’ve got to have some bottle to be a client these days and it’s only fair that Nora-Kate O’Connell, Charley Casey and Shane O’Brien from Brown Forman get credited by the agency. True, there wasn’t a massive investment in the idea (they say it cost $6,356.96 in whiskey) but once they had posted up the idea on Facebook, there was no knowing where it might go. So it required faith and hope as well. But it talked to its target audience in a way that really meant something to them. It was down to earth, community-centric and involved drinking. A lesson to us all in how to use social media.