Objectives

Awareness remains a top priority for the brand in the crowded US whisk(e)y category.

The objective of Quest for Craft for The Balvenie Single Malt Scotch Whisky was to drive impactful brand awareness and relevance with consumers as the most handcrafted of whisk(e)ys, laddering up to our vision to be the leading discerning luxury single malt whisky.

Awareness and relevance was to be measured by:

• Statistically significant lift in awareness lifts as measured by Kantar in the Brand Lift Study
• CTR (click through rate) and VCR (video completion rate) across series trailers
• VCR (video completion rate) on long form episodes
• Statistically significant lift in key equity attributes as measured by Kantar in the Brand Lift Study:
  • Is a brand you would pay a bit more for
  • Is a brand for discerning drinkers
  • Is a brand that is skillfully crafted

Strategy and Execution

Insights: This campaign targets “Aspiring Makers” who are on a constant quest for personal and cultural development: 88% like to learn about arts and culture (i140) and 92% like to challenge themselves to be the best they can be (i139). They long for authenticity - 74% appreciate luxury products for the craftsmanship, quality and experience of the product (i209).

Strategy: The Balvenie vision is to be the leading discerning luxury single malt. To achieve this, The Balvenie must facilitate continued discovery as we hero ultimate craftsmanship in everything that we do. 

The Quest for Craft digital series was created in partnership with scholar of creativity Questlove to explore the often-obsessive human attributes possessed by those on the never-ending journey of taking something from great to exceptional and to enable the brand to drive awareness and relevance with Aspiring Makers and discerning spirits drinkers.

Now in its second season, the series continues to peel back the curtain through new perspectives, unveiling the deep intrinsic human values at the intersection of craft & creativity within some of the most successful and influential makers.

Results

The series has exceeded expectations. Despite supply challenges, 2022 sales were +5% vs YAG.

Paid campaign also outperformed on key KPIs of driving awareness and relevance at scale:

• Across all content, we reached over 43MM unique consumers, have amassed 27MM+ views on YouTube and added over 2.1k new subscribers to our channel, the latter speaking highly to the campaign’s success in bringing new consumers into the brand.
• Across full episode (long-form) placements, Video Completion Rate was 8.5% vs vendor benchmark of 1% thereby delivering our goal of driving emotional engagement with consumers.
• :30 trailer VCR: 72% vs 59% weighted benchmark across CTV, OLV, and YouTube pre-roll
• Dark Social CTR: 1.65% vs 0.95% benchmark
• In a post-campaign Brand Lift Study from Kantar, Quest for Craft Season 2 successfully drove statistically significant lift between Exposed vs Control* audiences and for both overall audience (OA) and luxury whisky drinkers(LWD) across key metrics:
  • Aided Awareness:
    • OA: 52% vs 39%
    • LWD 75% vs 59%
  • Brand Favorability
    • OA: 48% vs 32%
  • Affinity:
    • OA: 40% vs 26%
  • Key equity attributes:
    • Is a brand you would pay a bit more for
      • OA: 45% vs 31%
      • LWD 69% vs 50%
    • Is a brand for discerning drinkers
      • OA: 45% vs 31%
      • LWD 68% vs 53%
    • Is a brand that is skillfully crafted
      • OA: 48% vs 33%
      • LWD 73% vs 53%

*Control = Audience not exposed to campaign

Source: Dentsu Media reporting through 12/31/22; Kantar Brand Lift Study Feb 2023

Media