
Bourbon Cares
Mission:
Introduce 30,000 new customers to Kentucky Bourbon Trail brands, while providing a new revenue vertical for the Kentucky Natural Lands Trust to protect critical Kentucky wildlands.
Strategy:
Design an engaging experiential marketing activation that combines bourbon brands with national touring bands inside the Forecastle Festival. Design a “turn-of-the-century rickhouse meets prohibition-era speakeasy” and invite bands to sample single-barrel selections from their favorite bourbon brands. Pair Woodford Reserve, Four Roses, Old Forester, Heaven Hill and Wild Turkey with artists like Alabama Shakes, My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, Spoon, and more, with proceeds going to purchase critical watersheds and old-growth forests in Eastern Kentucky.
Results:
The participating brands received a powerful PR and social impact marketing alignment with popular national artists, new customers and retail sales (at no cost, other than allocating a single-barrel to the program, paid for by the concessionaire). Kentucky Natural Lands Trust raised thousands to protect critical watersheds and wildlands corridors. For the festival, an impactful experiential marketing activation was born, which grew from 900 to 15,000 square ft, and was hailed as “Bourbon’s Most Important Festival” by Wall Street Journal best-selling author Fred Minnick.