44° North ® Vodka
PORTFOLIO
Commercial Video Series Production ● Campaign Branding & Logo Design ● Social Media Management ● Paid Advertising Campaign
National Brand Ambassador Campaign
44° North® Vodka came to Boost Media with a brilliant idea: to create a bold new channel of engagement between their business and their distributors, loyal consumers, and anyone who loves craft cocktails and their unique, mountain west brand.
To accomplish this, they decided they would host a nationwide search for a 44° North® Vodka Brand Ambassador to represent their brand and drive awareness – but they didn’t know how. We helped show them.
Boost Media developed a four-phase plan that included the following tasks:
This campaign had many layers and moving parts requiring a special focus on logistics, creativity, and execution.
Phase 1 | Branding a Nationwide Competition Campaign
We wanted the whole campaign to have its own branding that spoke to the unique nature of the competition, but was still recognizable as the 44° North® Vodka brand. At Boost, we regularly help brands develop fresh new brand standards and identities, but within this project, we had the opportunity to build new materials within the brand’s pre-established guidelines.
Boost designed distinct branding for the Brand Ambassador competition, and also for the “Campfire Cocktails” portion of the finalist weekend. Both branding assets were to be used as marketing assets, merchandising, and for future short-form video advertising.
The logo was designed to be recognized as the 44° North ® Vodka brand, but to differentiate the Brand Ambassador competition as well. A badge design was chosen as a sign of rank and excellence – all of which would be expected of a 44° North® Vodka Finalist and Ambassador. This badge would be used in apparel, merchandise, and signage during the in-person finalist competition.
Phase 2 | Campaign Creative and Digital Advertising
The search for the Brand Ambassador hinged on reaching skilled bartenders across the nation and encouraging them to submit a short video to enter. To accomplish this, we created a nationwide omni-channel digital advertising strategy utilizing eye-catching images and video on digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to reach our target demographic – mixologists and bartenders.
The messaging of the campaign was tailored to suit the 44° North® Vodka brand. We were looking for a down-to-earth, community-focused ambassador to represent a home-grown, community-focused vodka.
Video Production
A professional, well-edited video was needed to introduce potential entrants to the 44° North® Vodka brand, explain the entry process, and entice this very specific bartending audience to submit a video to work with 44° North® Vodka. The project scope included:
Digital Advertising Campaign
A challenge of this campaign was reaching a very specific audience (mixologists and bartending) all across the country. Creative targeting via paid advertising became an essential component of this campaign.
YouTube and a variety of employment-focused Facebook/Instagram targeting was selected as the main vehicle to reach this audience. The national advertising campaign included:
In total, the campaign targeting strategy was successful and numerous qualified video submissions were submitted from coast-to-coast.
Phase 3 | Hosting a 3-Day Finalist Competition
Once the application videos were in and the finalists were selected, it was time to shift gears.
Creating a mini-reality series has many moving pieces requiring detailed coordination and organization. Video crews needed to be ready to go at scheduled arrival times for interviews and reactions. The finalist weekend schedule needed to be managed, including competition times, contestant activities, multiple location setups and lighting, and full-scale competition-style cocktail competition rounds. Boost Media directed the weekend from top to toe.
Once the finalists landed in Boise, we got the show on the road! Immediately upon touchdown we began filming arrivals and spent the entire weekend hosting, directing, and recording.
The finalist weekend meant long days for our management staff to ensure everything ran smoothly for the contestants, clients, venues, and our staff.
Campfire Cocktails Set Design
Day two of the competition required the creation of a campsite in a studio environment where the finalist would create a “campfire cocktail” using ingredients traditionally found when on a camping trip.
A large-scale campsite was created in our subsidiary b Studio [link] in downtown Boise, Idaho. A 15-foot green screen was utilized to add a Idaho mountain scenery background in post production.
The set design included bringing the camping experience to the studio complete with bark, a rock ring campfire site, camping chairs, and foliage to match the environment.
Phase 4 | Releasing the Mini-series
With the competition complete, it was time to dig in and edit the footage. The story was split into seven episodes, each focusing on different pieces of the competition, eventually culminating in the big reveal episode in which the winner was chosen. Boost Media handled all of post production, from splicing and editing to audio synchronization and color grading.
While editing and post-processing was underway, awareness campaigns were crafted to build awareness and support each episode’s launch. Organic posts and stories designed to fuel engagement were scheduled ahead of new releases, while Facebook Premier and YouTube were utilized to launch each episode.
To wrap up the project, Boost Media provided a capstone analytics report detailing impressions, engagement, cost per click, etc.
But the ambassador campaign is only the beginning of this story… After the project’s completion, 44° North® Vodka approached Boost Media to handle the next chapter in the 44° North® Vodka Brand Ambassador story: building the social power and presence behind the Brand Ambassadorship.