StrawberryFrog has revealed how it’s ‘equality marketing’ strategy turned Jim Beam around after years of declining sales.
While Jim Beam had a rich, bold history, the bourbon category was too caught in traditional thinking, while spokesman Kid Rock only catered to a “very specific audience”.
StrawberryFrog created the Jim Beam ‘Make History’ campaign, with a “movement strategy that took a stand against the patriarchy and for equality”.
“Our research underlined the importance of the female millennial consumer and yet nothing had been done in the category to earn her respect and patronage,” StrawberryFrog noted in The Drum. “Thus, our movement for equality. We said that the brand needed a powerful movement idea that would ignite conversation and action. We wrote the movement motto: ‘Make History’, which allowed us to talk about the heritage and legacy of the brand. It also allows us to talk about the brand now, because rather than a beer moment, ‘Make History’ is about what you and your friends are going to do tonight that’s a little more special than a beer night.”
StrawberryFrog then made history by launching the first marketing and advertising campaign for an iconic American bourbon featuring a woman – actress Mila Kunis.
“Mila is seen by young guys as being someone that is real, approachable, and fun,” StrawberryFrog explained. “Women admire her strength and confidence, and she inspires them. Mila’s desire to immerse herself in the brand and its history; to become, as she put it, the next generation of Beam, added up to the perfect brand fit. Plus, she drinks a lot of Jim Beam bourbon! She loves it.”
The approach was a game changer and quickly aligned with millennial women.
How female drinkers boosted Jim Beam’s bottom line
Earlier this year, Rebecca Messina, SVP/global CMO for Beam Suntory, revealed details of its “Whiskey and Women” research project at the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) 2018 Brand Masters conference.
She said the project helped guide the company towards adopting a new positioning for Jim Beam.
“We found that 30% of the growth was coming from women in a beverage category where no one was talking about women, no one was showing women,” Messina said. “I just felt that we could do better than that.”
Since Mila Kunis signed on in 2013, sales volume has spiked 24%.
“A male will say this: ‘Let me show you how to drink whiskey.’ He’s going to tell her how to drink it his way,” Messina said. “A female has this little thing called empathy. And she says, ‘Oh, what do you like to drink? That’s where to start.’”
Talking to women “was a very, very simple idea”, she conceded.
Another benefit of this approach: “When we show women drinking whiskey, men will come. But when we show men drinking whiskey, sometimes women won’t,” Messina said.
The company has also created releases such as Jim Beam Apple and Jim Beam Vanilla, which are easy entry points to bourbon and have a strong appeal to both sexes.
Megan Frank, VP of global marketing, told Drinks Business last year that flavoured whiskeys were key to attracting new drinkers and expanding the brand into new occasions.
As for who those new drinkers are: “It depends on the flavour, though some do over-index on female and multicultural consumers.
She added: “We’re outpacing Jack Daniel’s in the developed markets,” she retorts. For Jim Beam, ‘developed’ means the US, Germany and Australia where “we’re the number-one spirits brand”.
Kunis launched Jim Beam Vanilla with master distiller, Fred Noe, last year.
“Mila is the kind of girl everybody wants to hang out with,” says Fred Noe. “We love to laugh and cuss and raise hell and enjoy the bourbon. When this thing started, our former CMO, Kevin George, told me he saw an opportunity to introduce women to whiskey, and he was looking for a spokesperson to whom everybody will relate. Partnering with Mila has been a match made in heaven.”
Kunis added: “There’s an emptiness in the market for females promoting brown spirits. I see women promoting wine and ultra-feminine drinks, and I think whiskey is not any less feminine. I wanted to open that door and say it’s OK for women to order a whiskey and be just as empowered as if she ordered a Cosmo.”
Watch a compilation of StrawberryFrog’s ads below:
