Purchases happen in-store, but “popular conversation” lives elsewhere. We wanted a unique context, a magnet for tastemakers. Where the word “bestseller” is on everyone’s lips and nobody’s expecting whisky to pop up. In short, we wanted the Frankfurt Book Fair.There, we focused on the leading editors, publishers and bloggers - like the Ballantine’s target, the kind of people who never shy away from conversation and are always eager to “multiply” new experiences and opinions, whether about literary bestsellers...or other kinds.

And we invited a few thousand of these “multipliers” to join a Battle of the Bestsellers - ours versus theirs.

Surrounded by Johnnie, Jim and Jack, a Ballantine’s happening at a Frankfurt Whisky Fair would have been invisible. But our Battle got seen by the right folks, with 66% of the people we invited taking us up on the challenge.

Seen, and heard. Our “multipliers” really did their job, because popular conversation about the brand - as evidenced by Google searches for “Ballantine’s Bestseller” - rocketed 1300%. How do we know the event drove this? Because it was never publicly promoted; the only way so many people could have become so specifically interested in Ballantine’s was via word of mouth and/or blogs.