Culture + Brand
LAPHROAIG OPINIONS WELCOME
Turning polarisation into a brand platform. Laphroaig | White Label | Global
Challenge
Laphroaig's smoky, peaty flavour produced extreme reactions love it or hate it. Rather than hide that polarisation, we decided to make it the brand's advantage.
Insight
People don't have neutral reactions to Laphroaig. Those first-sip reactions were more distinctive and memorable than any conventional whisky advertising proposition.
Idea
Opinions Welcome. Real consumer opinions became the campaign, appearing across advertising, social, experiential, packaging and an always-on digital content platform.
My role
As Art Director effectively the sole in-house creative, directly managing four contractors I built the entire brand toolkit hands-on with White Label. We spent months in ideation: concepting, shoots, typography exploration with freelance collaborators. This was my campaign.
I wrote and built the full global toolkit typography, posters, social, print, airport and in-store branding, merchandise the rules for how the identity worked anywhere in the world, shared globally through Beam Suntory. I also created the press ads and launch campaigns, and oversaw the landing page where customers submitted their own opinions of Laphroaig. One of the clearest showcases of my branding craft.
Impact
#2 best-selling Scotch in 2019
+22% US sales growth in six months
+100% Q4 sales growth for Laphroaig Select
45M+ global impressions
PIAF Gold · Drum Advertising Strategy of the Year · Drinks Business Social Media Campaign of the Year · Shorty Awards recognition
Art Direction · Brand Strategy · Campaign · Social · Experiential · Packaging
The hero composition of the advert, we leverged as a holder for customer reviews.
NYC Post campaign leveraging our toolkit created.
Hero wall art mockup, not activated but used for pitch material.
Lightbox billboards: this layout was used on Facebook adverts across global regions.
The interactive hub at Laphroaig.com/opinions featured real-time user submissions and a live “Opinion Wall.”
A campaign global toolkit was created, from how to create the typography lockups and ads through to all creative touchpoints for Opinions Welcome.
Clippings from the TV spot we created as a pilot version that scaled across the globe.
The reviews made it to the actual distillery; this is the peat furnace wall in Islay.
The reviews feature on-case barrels and were used on social media.
Big Opinions: lucky customers had their reviews written on the wall of the distillery.
Big Opinions ran from 11-15 October, displaying real-time Twitter views from around the world onto the 200-year-old white walls of Laphroaig’s Warehouse No 1.
Big Opinions ran from 11-15 October, displaying real-time Twitter views from around the world onto the 200-year-old white walls of Laphroaig’s Warehouse No 1.
Launch Ad
Laphroaig Single Malt peated whisky from Islay. The most richly flavoured Scotch whisky in the world. It's a complex beast; even our closest friends describe us in seemingly disparaging terms before saying, 'They love us!'