The 17th of January saw the The Balvenie’s first ever live online tasting with members of The Balvenie’s relationship marketing program Warehouse 24 invited to actually participate and taste The Balvenie’s new limited edition expression, Craftsman’s Reserve No.1, The Cooper.
The campaign offered UK members of Warehouse 24 the opportunity to receive a tasting kit which included a 10cl bottle of the special expression and two tasting glasses to share with a friend. All they had to do was register for the event and invite a friend to sign up to Warehouse 24. Once the friend had successfully registered with Warehouse 24, they received a tasting pack to share.
Traditionally whisky tastings are intimate gatherings for a small number of people. With the advent of online tastings, brands are now able to access a much larger audience but that scale has come at a price as it’s very hard to maintain the intimacy of a real world tasting when you’re not actually in the room. Our solution was to create a very different type of online tasting, where the audience were able to actually participate, thanks to the tasting packs they received. This meant that the audience were literally as close as they could be to their hosts, truly enjoying rather than observing the tasting from afar. The element of participation did not stop there as we created a great buzz amongst the members during the live tasting on Facebook and Twitter, and the live chat function which sat alongside the streamed event on the website.
The expert panel line up featured David Stewart, The Balvenie’s Malt Master, Ian McDonald, Head Cooper and Sam Simmons, Brand Ambassador. They tasted and discussed the new limited edition expression of The Balvenie, taking questions from viewers and sharing tasting notes. Everyone agreed it was something a bit special (especially Ian, the Head Cooper) and the thousands of comments on the chat function proved Warehouse 24 members certainly agreed!
If you missed it or want to relive the event you can watch the video of the tasting on the site http://www.thebalvenie.com/en-gb/online_tasting_event.php
This was a fully integrated campaign, using a mix of online advertising, Facebook, Twitter, email and direct mail to Warehouse 24 members, and an event hub on The Balvenie website where the live tasting was streamed and campaign films were shown before and after the event. It’s a great example of how integration of offline and online marketing communications used in the correct way can deliver a truly effective campaign.
If you’d like to discover how TCA’s integrated approach can support your business in 2012 call Adam Leigh on 020 7224 3456.
