Pinterest users are mostly women. Our fans are mostly men. But that didn’t stop us from being a pioneer in the whisky industry on this social platform. Why? Because women aren’t that scary. And contrary to popular belief, they are enjoying bourbon at increasing rates. Since we joined Pinterest in 2012 with our targeted content strategy, we have led the entire competitive set by tenfold in both followers and engagement. It’s a party, and we’ll pin what we want to. That plays a big part in the popularity of Pinterest – getting to make your own boards and collect things that interest you. So for us it wasn’t just about our messaging, such as establishing ourselves as a mixable bourbon. What interested our existing and potential followers? 2013 was a year of discovery. A new way of presenting cocktail recipes. Creating a much-needed infographic to fill a void and answer a question constantly asked in the bourbon world: “What is the difference between bourbon and whisky?" Seasonal boards and party planning. As a Kentucky bourbon - all things Derby. Highlighting creative upcycling projects on Pinterest such as turning empty Maker’s Mark bottles into a chandelier, birdhouse, torch, USB and more. Our fans are cool like that and deserve the recognition. Strategy: Pinterest is a social platform that quickly established itself as the #1 referral site, and our strategy has been focused on exactly that - referrals. Not only creating engaging content to increase referral of our bourbon, but also making referrals by sharing interesting pins from bloggers, mixologists and Pinterest users doing something different. “Talk to people, not at them" was a phrase our founder believed should be the backbone of the brand and is the epitome of everything we do on social. So in 2013, we added 11 boards to our page – not merely our original content that we wanted to be shared, but also bourbon-inspired themes that were pinned to our list. Maker’s Mark Does Derby and Ugly Sweater boards for party planning. With such a big focus on handcrafting our bourbon, it was natural to carry that over to Pinterest, highlighting incredible DIY fan photos with boards like 101 Uses of a Maker’s Mark bottle and This Takes the Cake. Another goal was to encourage mixing with Maker’s. But cocktail recipes can be intimidating. Complicated. And Maker’s Mark is all about being smooth – a bourbon that is easy to drink and share with friends. So, we set out to craft simple, self-contained digital recipe cards for cocktails that followers could easily create, enjoy and share on Pinterest. Executional details: It seems every liquor company has cocktail recipes on social media – a professionally shot photo of the drink. We really wanted to do something different. Mix it up a bit. (Pun intended.) Inspired by incredibly talented food and cocktail bloggers, we wanted a balance between professional shots and creative staging. So we decided to photograph (yes, these are actual photos!) the ingredients in a unique, aesthetically pleasing layout, with the recipe incorporated within the image to ensure that through all the sharing, each person could easily access it. As Pinterest Promoted Pins have only been released to a small number of advertisers, we had to get creative. Within Facebook, we created a Custom Audience of users who had connected Pinterest and Facebook through the open graph. We could then reach an audience we knew was on Pinterest, with custom creative (a mocked Pinterest Board or Cocktail Recipe Card). If Facebook users clicked through, they would be driven to a Maker’s Pinterest board, where they could browse recipes and more. Results: The infographic we created and pinned, Bourbon vs Whisky: Setting the Record Straight (Or On Ice If You Prefer) was even picked up on Huffington Post and Foodbeast.com. Referrals to our website from Pinterest were up 1,125% over 2012! 617,580 total impressions in 2013 - up 659.33% since 2012. With a mere 13 pins garnering over 1,500 repins and 200 likes, our Cocktail Recipe Cards have already received early award nominations, including a Louie. Average reach of approximately 1,000 a day in 2013 - up 709% from 2012. 11 boards had 8,428 interactions. Whisky Holidays & Bourbon Dreams board alone had almost 2,000 repins and 4,379 followers. Increased board followers by 150% over 20 days with Open Graph Facebook targeting. In short, for Maker’s Mark, pin it to win it is more than a type of contest for fans. It is an everyday goal. Pin great content that our friends care about to win them over.
