LAWSON'S TABLECLOTH CHALLENGE

TitleLAWSON'S TABLECLOTH CHALLENGE
BrandBACARDI RUS
Product/ServiceWILLIAM LAWSON'S WHISKY
Category C02. Use of Social in a PR campaign
Entrant LOUDER Moscow, RUSSIA
Idea Creation LOUDER Moscow, RUSSIA
PR LOUDER Moscow, RUSSIA
Production LOUDER Moscow, RUSSIA
Credits
Name Company Position
Maxim Proskuryakov Louder Community Manager
Arina Erygina Louder Head of Creative
Elizaveta Akhmetova Louder Digital Group Head
Anastasia Gritskova Louder Head of PR
Tamara Zhitareva Louder Public Relations - Digital

Why is this work relevant for PR?

Using famous social meme from Youtube as a creative basis turned into an exceptionally effective online campaign in terms of brand awareness & engagement, and resulted in New Year Lawson’s party for 2500 people.

Background

New Year is a time of holy traditions. But for William Lawson’s, a whiskey brand with no-rules philosophy, nothing is sacred. To attract people to its own epic New Year event William Lawson's went over iconic New Year symbol of perfectly served table — and with a help from famous bloggers launched Tablecloth Pull Challenge in SoMe. Brief: To propose a no-rule activation of Lawson's whiskey brand timed to a New Year eve, including brand heroes - Highlanders and main brand attributes. Objectives: • To make William Lawson’s most talked brand among 18-24 audience in social media • To stress no-rules brand character • To invite audience to the final no-rule brand event — Lawson’s New Year party.

Describe the creative idea

To state yourself as a no-rules brand you need to tear down a symbol. In William Lawson's case that was a symbol of perfectly served NY table. Together with famous bloggers, we launched a Tablecloth Pull Challenge in SoMe. 7 bloggers made videos where they creatively pulled branded tablecloth with the product on table and invited viewers to William Lawson's New Year party. Starting from digital, the campaign's idea was extrapolated to all channels (PR, event, on-trade, off-trade). With simple action, native product placement and cheeky copyright (to pull is also to drink a shot in Russian) we made a direct link between the brand and no-rules New Year in consumers' minds. The blogger videos received 9,5 MIO views and 773K likes. Together with our viral videos, we got 15,3 MIO views in total. Our event attracted 2500 guests, while also gaining 8000+ registration requests.

Describe the strategy

For every brand in the spirits category New Year is a game-changing season in terms of sales and volumes. Nonetheless, to some products this time is more fortunate than to others. New Year, being a holiday with strictly defined traditions in Russia, plays in favour of conventional spirits (such as vodka), while also rewarding a well-established manner of celebration. That posed quite a serious challenge to William Lawson's — a whisky brand with no-rules philosophy that defies all conventions. With an ambition to become the most-talked brand among 18-24 audience in Social Media and a task to invite people to its own New Year event, William Lawson's had to integrate itself within New Year agenda — but at the same it has to do in its own disruptive manner.

Describe the execution

November - December 2017 To attract people to its own epic new year event William Lawson's went over iconic NY symbol of perfectly served table — and with a help from famous bloggers launched Tablecloth Pull Challenge in SoMe. 7 famous bloggers made videos where they creatively pulled branded tablecloth with the product on a table and invited viewers to sign up to the most epic NY party. Tablecloth challenge was picked up by media and ordinary internet users which let the campaign go viral.

List the results

• 7 challenges from YouTube bloggers: 9,5 MIO views & 773K likes • Over 15,3 MIO total views of viral videos • +3,8 MIO organic views vs. the plan • 8000 registration requests • 2500 people at the final brand event