The House of Suntory wanted to drive awareness and desirability of Hibiki and build it into a global luxury lifestyle brand that transcends the Japanese Whisky category.
To achieve this, The House of Suntory partnered with Business Insider and its branded content studio, Insider Studios, to create a custom content campaign that would not only elevate Hibiki’s status, but redefine it completely.
The campaign aimed to:
These goals came to life in “24 Moments of Harmony,” a first-of-its-kind interactive digital experience that wove cinematic storytelling, photography, video, audio, and illustration into a multisensory exploration of modern harmony rooted in Japanese artistry and tradition, inspired by Hibiki Whisky.
The campaign was born from a simple insight: Today’s luxury consumers crave cultural meaning over status — a trend supported by Boston Consulting Group research showing 80% of luxury buyers value brands that engage with local culture. This understanding shaped the approach: to elevate Hibiki from premium whisky to cultural authority and position it as a masterpiece of Japanese artistry, elevated by nature.
Inspired by the 24 facets of Hibiki’s bottle, the team created an interactive page that unfolded through 24 cinematic “moments,” combining original photography, video, illustration, and ambient sound. Each moment offered a lens into the Japanese ideals of harmony, craftsmanship, and artistic precision, reinforcing Hibiki’s role as a curator of elevated experiences and cultural sophistication.
The interactive was promoted through targeted native placements across businessinsider.com, as well as social distribution of three vertical videos cut from the experience via Instagram and YouTube Shorts. Onsite media leveraging campaign imagery was designed to drive click-throughs to ecommerce sites where the audience could purchase Hibiki. This 360-approach allowed users to spend time with Hibiki messaging, build awareness, and demonstrate purchase intent.
The goal was to position Hibiki as the embodiment of harmony — not only in its blend, but in how it reflects Japan’s deep respect for balance between nature, craftsmanship, and tradition. The challenge was turning that abstract idea into a tangible, emotionally resonant experience that would have a lasting impact on the audience.
The team began by identifying key narrative anchors for the experience: the landscape of Japan, Hibiki’s heritage, and the craft of blending. These themes shaped six chapters — Harmony, Nature, Artistry, Blending, Tradition, and Omotenashi — each serving as a natural touchpoint. Within them, they selected moments that embodied the interplay of innovation and tradition: from tea ceremonies to textiles, washi art to woodcarving, onsens to the convergence of three rivers.
Bringing this vision to life demanded a highly choreographed production effort. Over 4 days and 13 locations, dual crews captured up to four shoots per day. Highlights included The Bar at the Ritz Carlton in Tokyo and the Light Cycles installation at Kyoto Botanical Garden. They also filmed interviews with Fifth Chief Blender Shinji Fukuyo and washi artist Eriko Horiki, who crafted the Hibiki bottle label. Insider Studios led global logistics and coordination with the House of Suntory to ensure precision at every turn.
The interactive build mirrored this intentionality. Designed with a horizontal scroll, the site invited users to explore at their own pace — gradually peeling back each layer of the Hibiki story. Color, light, and sound became co-narrators. The palette drew from the 24 seasons of the Japanese calendar — soft purples of early autumn, golden hues of late summer, deep browns of aged wood. Light was natural and directional, making time feel visible. And ambient soundscapes — flowing water, creaking oak, rustling leaves — brought nature’s rhythm into focus.
The result was a richly crafted digital journey that expressed Hibiki’s depth, elegance, and artistry in every sense of the word.
“24 Moments of Harmony” achieved exceptional performance, setting a new benchmark for immersive branded storytelling.
Audiences spent an average of 5:01 minutes exploring the experience — 234% above benchmark — reflecting the depth of engagement inspired by its design and multisensory execution.
The campaign also drove measurable brand impact. A brand lift study showed a 2x increase in unaided brand recall and a 2.7x lift in very likely purchase intent, signaling a powerful shift in both awareness and consideration.
Media delivery exceeded expectations across all channels. The campaign’s pageviews surpassed guarantees by over 9%. Two-thirds of those views originated from key international markets, fulfilling a core client objective to drive global reach in priority regions.
Native units delivered a click-through rate 93% above benchmark. Video assets further amplified the campaign’s success, generating views 6% above guarantees — with a view completion rate that exceeded platform benchmarks.
These results show that audiences went beyond passive scrolling, to engage, explore, and leave with a deeper emotional connection to Hibiki.
