For 11 years, Hennessy has connected to a community of multicultural men through our “Wild Rabbit” creative campaign that expressed the personal, internal and relentless motivation of our target and brand—an ownable creative device that differentiated us from the category.

However, the spirits category has become increasingly interested in the multicultural consumer. Competitor brands such as D'usse and Martell have been gaining cultural vibrancy, and our brand loyalty is under constant threat.

Given the category landscape, we were tasked with creating a new chapter of the “Wild Rabbit” campaign that would connect with the evolved needs and ambitions of our multicultural consumer, increasing the brand’s cultural relevance and driving consumption.

Our new campaign tells the story of Maurice Ashley, the world’s first Black chess grand master.

Beginning with his introduction to the game as a young man, the work chronicles the early days of Maurice’s development, playing among the Black Bear School of Chess, a group of accomplished local chess players who congregated in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park in the 1980s and 1990s.

What starts off as a chronicling of Maurice’s beginnings in the fast-paced, trash-talk-filled world of blitz chess becomes a larger story of his effort to master the endless complexities of chess. We witness the often tumultuous internal journey Maurice takes in his mind to become a grand master and his realization that total immersion in chess, rather than simply winning, was his ultimate goal.

As part of the campaign, we created a short-form documentary that gives this important and untold piece of Black history the attention it deserves.

Cultural narratives in the US tend to focus on Black success in terms of athleticism and entertainment. Because previous chapters of the campaign focused on physical feats and triumphs of will, we wanted to tell a story rooted in the power of the mind and shed light on a narrative that is too often overlooked: Black-intellectual excellence.

Guided by the voices of Maurice Ashley and his mentor Willie “Pops” Johnson, the documentary chronicles Maurice’s ascent from wide-eyed rookie to grand master. It begins with his early years playing among the Black Bear School of Chess and follows his story through to the match that made him a grand master. The final chapter details the ways in which he’s helping the next generation of Black chess players progress today.

The overall craft —pace of the edit, music, typography and use of mixed media—are inspired by the culture and aesthetics of 90s Brooklyn. Additionally, because Maurice’s story is a largely untold chapter of history, the creation of this documentary took extensive and painstaking research. In addition to interviews with Maurice, Willie and other and surviving members of the Black Bear School, we also unearthed numerous archival materials, including photographs, old notebooks and decades-old footage of Maurice’s actual chess matches.

The 5-min documentary was only a piece of our campaign but to-date it has been viewed 1.2 M times with 73% positive sentiment leading to +9pt in consideration and +12pt in brand love among those exposed to OLV – with more than a number of social comments calling for a feature-length documentary.