Whiskey brand Jack Daniels is already activating its 2015 Lollapalooza rights with a new digital campaign called ‘Summer Swarm’ giving fans weekly ‘social photo’ challenges to be in with a chance to win a VIP trip for two to Chicago for next year’s version of the iconic August music festival.
The US social sweepstakes style campaign, promoting its Tennessee Honey flavour brand extension, is running over eight weeks of summer 2014 and revolves around consumer photo uploads – each week focusing on a different summer theme such as ‘Outdoors’, ‘Beach’, Adventure’, ‘Selfie Season’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’.
The brand is not only asking music fans and whiskey drinkers to upload their own pictures to the campaign microsite, Facebook page, Instagram account, Twitter feed and text, but also encouraging them to vote for their favourite shots based on ‘creativity’ and ‘uniqueness’ and thus choose the winners.
Each week’s themed challenge is revealed online at www.jacksummerswarm.com every Monday at midnight.
Weekly prizes include product and brand merchandise, while the Grand Prize is two, three-day Platinum Passes to the Lollapalooza festival in August 2015 (plus flights, hotel accommodation and an additional gift card of $500).
The initiative is being promoted with online video,
plus paid media running on Facebook, Gawker and BuzzFeed, while the brand is also pushing the campaign on its other social channels.
The Tennessee Honey variant is targeting younger ‘weekend warriors’, ‘music lovers’ and ‘festival goers’ rather than the slightly older ‘professional’ drinker that forms the core market segment of the classic parent brand.
‘The idea is our target consumers love sharing content and social currency, they love sharing summer experiences,” says Jack Daniels senior brand manager Casey Nelson. ‘We link it all to social this year.’
The campaign is also part of the brand’s longer-term strategy to build up a database of opted-in consumers which Jack Daniel’s can subsequently use to re-target in future promotions.
‘We have started in the past several campaigns gathering a database of consumers that have engaged with us,’ Nelson said. ‘They have proven to be active participants with us.’
In addition to longer term social engagement and brand interaction, Jack Daniels uses its position as one of the drinks sponsors at Lollapalooza for a range of tactics including awareness, experience and trial sampling.
This year also sees the brand roll out a music-themed video as part of its Lollapalooza festival activation featuring the Capital Cities track ‘Safe and Sound’ from their ‘In A Tidal Wave Of Mystery’ album.
Comment
Now it is vital for brands targeting younger adult audiences to include high concentrations of social involvement and consumer-created social currency within their campaigns.
Social currency, the concept of creating platform and opportunities for audiences and consumers to share their experiences with a product or brand via social media in return for rewards, is becoming de rigour as brands understand the rising importance of two-way conversations.
Links
Jack Daniels Summer Swarm Website
Jack Daniels Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/jackdaniels
Jack Daniels YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWEiJs2X-wAaj5k-Wp26Ulw
Lollapalooza Website
