Win a Car - The Jupiter Drawing Room

Background

Bushmills is an Irish whiskey and was a relatively new brand in South Africa. The Jupiter Drawing Room was asked to get more people sampling the product.

Though a promotion was called for, the communication had other objectives beyond driving trial. First, the campaign needed to reinforce the brand strategy of “true character”. Second, it needed to reflect the craftsmanship and 400-year heritage of the brand. Third, it needed to stand out against the plethora of advertising and POS in bars and bottle stores.

Idea

The agency knew that car competitions almost always worked. But how could they make this competition different?

Offer whiskey drinkers the chance to win a car with as much heritage as Bushmills itself – a classic MG, which was being lovingly restored.

The visual of the car before its restoration raised an immediate “Huh? What’s going on here?” response from consumers.

Posters, coasters, table talkers, shelf strips, aisle interrupters and dump-bins were used to advertise the competition. With every purchase of Bushmills, the consumer got a sealed necktag with a unique number to text for entry.

They were then prompted to go the website for three reasons: to double their entry, possibly win a bottle of Bushmills, and follow the restoration. The site was updated every week with new photos and captions about the car and people involved. This encouraged regular consumer interaction with the brand for the 2 months of the promotion.

Results

Sales increased by 57% in 2 months, from 400 cases to 700 cases per week.

Our Thoughts

OK. There’s nothing new about winning a car. But the way these guys have done it is fresh and captivating. They’ve also built smarts into getting people to keep returning to their site. This is one of those jobs where the agency hasn’t settled for the expected and as a result has produced something 75% better than anyone would have expected.