Highland Park
// Delivering an engagement rate 780% higher than industry average
How do you bring a product to life via social media?
We were tasked with bringing The Highland Park 50 Year Old to life for whisky fans who would most likely never get to try it, with a limited run of bottles and a price tag of £20,000, as part of its launch.
Two films with two different purposes, story and taste, inspired a suite of accompanying social assets to engage the audience around this prestigious whisky.
To find out how we can help you do the same for your product, get in touch today, or read on to discover exactly what went into this special launch, and what we did to drive an engagement rate 780% higher than the alcohol industry average.
THE CHALLENGE
The Highland Park 50 Year Old is the distillery’s oldest and most prestigious release to date, and they required a global social media campaign to promote its launch.
Hydrogen was appointed to create a tasting film for the Highland Park website and YouTube channel, with a minimum of one teaser asset and one launch announcement asset for social media, optimised for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
We were to tell the full story of the product, highlighting taste, process and craftmanship.
CONSIDERATIONS
We had to consider the price point and exclusivity of this product for this campaign to work. The content we created would have to be as premium as the product itself whilst educating and exciting the audience, without alienating them.
Another major point for consideration was the filming restrictions we were under due to COVID-19. We had been tasked with creating a video and were somewhat creatively restricted by not being able to film in-person, say at the distillery or with Highland Park Whisky Maker, Gordon Motion. We had to get extra creative to meet the brief which made the project even more fulfilling.
THE SOLUTION
We worked collaboratively with the team to understand the full story around this incredibly rare and prestigious release.
In order to effectively communicate the essence of Highland Park and the craft of what they do, we created not one, but two, short films and a bank of engaging content to be used for a multi-channel brand positioning campaign.
Only 274 bottles of the new Highland Park 50 Year Old were created, with each signed by Highland Park's Master Whisky Maker, Gordon Motion, so we really wanted to highlight the scarcity of this special and impressive liquid.
We also wanted to highlight the effort and craftmanship that had gone in to making this whisky and presentation box.
It was decided that the incredible journey and story of this whisky wouldn’t be done justice in just one video so instead we created two: a beauty video and a tasting video to share two very different elements of this rare whisky.
Our first video conveyed the idea of ‘50 years in 50 seconds’ – what had happened while the whisky was sleeping, and what was created as a result of that 50-year distillation period.
This ‘beauty film’ illustrated how different the world was when the original casks which created the base of this whisky were laid down, using stock footage which represented key historical moments of the 1960s. From this, we created a bank of content which was used throughout the first phase of the campaign, including video cutdowns.
Our second video was a tasting film. With only 274 bottles available, at an RRP of £20,000, most people would never get the chance to experience this whisky. But we didn’t want to deprive them of the experience.
We were keen to incorporate Gordon Motion, Highland Park’s Master Whisky Maker, into the tasting film, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, we were unable to film in person.
To get around this, we used footage we had previously shot with Gordon in the Highland Park tasting lab, to introduce him. Then we recorded a voice-over with Gordon, bringing his wisdom and authority to the film. His narration and our imagery married up beautifully, allowing us to fully illustrate the depth of flavour of Highland Park 50 Year Old.
Watch the beauty film here
THE RESULTS
Want to make the most of a product launch and tell a story? Get in touch today to discuss how we can help you.