For Jameson Irish Whiskey, St. Patrick’s Day is not just a day. It’s a four-week “season” that defines one of the brand’s most critical business periods for the year.

When the brand saw Leap Year had bumped St. Patrick’s Day from Saturday to Sunday, they refused to let a calendar glitch get in the way of a good time with friends and family. With a softening category, and Sunday a historically lighter day for alcohol sales (when St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Sunday in 2019, sales dropped 9%), we were tasked with creating a scalable, earned first idea to fuel Jameson’s ecosystem and position the brand as the drink of St. Patrick’s Day.

Success was solidifying Jameson’s cultural relevance in the weeks leading into March 17th to ensure the brand is top of mind as consumers plan their festivities and increase sales especially in our key markets.

We all waited seven years for St. Patrick’s Day to fall on a carefree Saturday and in 2024, it was supposed to. But Leap Year had other plans. So, when we saw the calendar 'feck' with St. Patrick’s Day, we decided to 'feck' with the calendar in return—upending centuries-old traditions by creating a new one and getting the party started the night before thanks to St. Patrick’s Eve (SPE).

Riffing on New Year’s Eve, we put a Jameson twist on the traditions Americans love and recognize. From SPE style with a limited-edition jacket to SPE drinks and party favors distributed to hundreds of bars, we launched a month-long, nationwide countdown that culminated in a Jameson-ified ball drop in New York’s Time Square. As it turned the iconic NYE ball green, Jameson brought thousands of fans together to celebrate the new holiday together, and like only a “Jameson” would.

We wanted to make it clear: the calendar shouldn’t dictate when the party starts.

To warm Americans up to the idea of moving the holiday – we engaged a couple of guys who know about making Saturday night special: Michael Che and Colin Jost from Saturday Night Live.

We started focusing on St. Patrick's Eve on February 15th, with social video content that leveraged Che and Jost teasing a new holiday coming from Jameson. Building anticipation, we officially introduced SPE with a series of vignettes - explaining how the “idea” for this holiday came to be, when the St. Patrick’s Day season was officially kicking off, and what our talent was going to wear to celebrate. For more sharing, we enlisted a roster of comedic, lifestyle influencers and cultural platforms.

Our target was Americans aged 21+, who cherish this holiday yearly, and couldn’t possibly celebrate it on a Sunday.

In the weeks leading up to St. Patrick’s Eve, we released a series of videos with Che and Jost who humorously discovered that St. Patrick’s Day coincides with a Leap Year and discussed how to get ready for SPE. We leveraged our campaign assets to pitch our story to audiences 21+ across key verticals.

Across the United States, excitement for SPE soared. We gave bars their own countdown clocks and SPE merchandise including limited-edition jackets to mark the occasion. In Chicago, we took over ferries on the river during the annual green river dyeing. Meanwhile, in Times Square, the heart of New York City, we hosted a blowout SPE celebration with Che and Jost, where fans could win exclusive invites to their private party. As St. Patrick’s Day (Sunday) dawned, thousands of fans decked in Jameson swag, joined us in Times Square to count down as the green ball dropped.

Ultimately, the leap year didn't ruin our celebration. Across the United States, 350 bars celebrated St. Patrick's Eve, and 5,000 people registered for our historic event in Times Square. We became the first spirit brand to orchestrate the iconic Swarovski ball drop on a day other than New Year’s Eve.

Social Media:

Talent:

8,151,589 Organic Impressions

13,430 Engagements

Influencer:

882,321 Organic Impressions

61,763 Organic Engagements

Earned Media:

6.7B total PR impressions

875 unique stories with 93% included branded assets

Paid Media:

1.5M paid impressions

99.4M Che and Jost video completions

2.2% completion rate in social video; +13% vs historical benchmark

Sales:

7.8% increase in week-over-week sales (week of SPD; off-premise sales)

Increase in key market week-over-week sales for Jameson Original including a +33% in Chicago, +10.9% in Las Vegas, +5.6% in New York and +2.6% in Los Angeles

Incremental lift in sales of 4.71% in the high impact OOH/experiential marketing