2021 Winner
SilverBest in Content Publishing
BronzeBest in Alcoholic Beverages
PMA
"Hendrick's Gin Presents
Peculiar Puzzles"
Jungle Media
"Hendrick's Gin Presents
Peculiar Puzzles"
Jungle Media
Nearing the end of 2020, Canadians were worn out from almost a year of COVID restrictions, many feeling burnt out, bored, and isolated. Fortunately, the Holiday season was soon to arrive, bringing, well, more boredom and isolation. Despite the restrictions, it would remain the biggest sales period of the year for the alcohol category, with fierce competition for libations and gifts. The challenge to capture attention would be no less for Hendrick’s Gin, purveyor of the most curious and stimulating gin. The gin category was continuing to explode, with over 60 new entrants to the market
in 2020 alone!
The agency was tasked with ensuring Hendrick’s cut through the noise and established distinction and differentiation via its unique brand world and cucumber infusion, at a time when the opportunities to interact and engage with consumers was at an all-time low.
Where mundanity and boredom rears its head, Hendrick’s Gin is prepared to banish the banal by stimulating curiosity with peculiar productions.
They found the perfect partner and tactic to aid them in their quest: the Globe & Mail, which every year prints an epic 500 word crossword feature just before the break. The perfect diversion for collaborative intellectual stimulation, it would also reach their high income target Nationally, in a premium,
brand safe environment.
Taking over the feature, they would craft a custom spread designed as Holiday gift wrap that perfectly fit a bottle of Hendrick’s, encouraging purchase for gifting. After all, people couldn’t even go out to buy gift wrap; they’d be providing an essential service! This unusual, functional spread wasn’t the only surprise, for the gift wrap itself would be part of the gift!
Publishing December 19th, the final weekend before Christmas, the timing was perfect to incite purchase and gifting during the biggest spirits sales week of the year. They designed 3 components to make it happen. The first element was a most unusual gift wrap. The outside back page of the spread was designed as an unusually festive gift wrap, Hendrick’s themed of course. They mapped out a Hendrick’s bottle shaped outline on an interior page that would be the precise space to place the bottle, from there needing simply to be rolled up to result in the ‘gift wrap’ page surrounding the bottle. Two well placed pieces of twine tied together the ends of the paper around the bottle, forming a ‘cracker’ shaped present! No tape required, which was critical to avoid ripping the paper.
The second element was a gift within the gift, Hendrick’s Gin Presents Peculiar Puzzles. They collaborated with the writer of the Globe & Mail’s mammoth Holiday crossword to produce a one-of-a-kind Hendrick’s themed crossword and word search. Hendrick’s brand equity was influenced with inclusion of 42 associated clues and words like cucumber (its key differentiating infusion), curious, martini, unusual, superpremium, small batch, delectable, monty python, cocktail, and dozens more! From the recipient’s point of view, they receive an unusually wrapped gift, and the wrap itself is revealed to be part of the gift! A curious crossword and wonderful word search to banish boredom.
The third element was amplification with no dead ends. In a first, the Diversions section was the outside section of the paper, with a Hendrick’s Gin ad on the cover being the very first thing readers saw, directing them to the feature. Once they’d had their fun, readers were directed to visit an online answer page, which included links to liquor board ecommerce product pages, as well as the option to download the puzzles if you weren’t a G&M subscriber. A social campaign amplified the feature, directing to the puzzles so all Canadians could engage in deductive delight!
The campaign reached over 1.6MM curious Canadians during the highest sales week of the year and contributed to post campaign ad appreciation scores that were 4x norms. There was a 42% lift in Purchase Consideration for those that recalled the G&M ad. Those that recalled the G&M ad reported hugely heightened brand perceptions, including: 91% score for High Quality, 85% score for Stands Out, a whopping +51% lift of Cucumber Infused score and a +25% lift of Unusual score. The campaign contributed to a record 29.5% campaign sales lift YOY. The answers/ecommerce webpage exceeded sponsored content benchmark page views by 118%.
The social amplification ad demonstrated the feature made for engaging content, having the highest clickthrough rate of any Hendrick’s ads run during the campaign, contributing 12% of all clicks
with 6% of the budget.
in 2020 alone!
The agency was tasked with ensuring Hendrick’s cut through the noise and established distinction and differentiation via its unique brand world and cucumber infusion, at a time when the opportunities to interact and engage with consumers was at an all-time low.
Where mundanity and boredom rears its head, Hendrick’s Gin is prepared to banish the banal by stimulating curiosity with peculiar productions.
They found the perfect partner and tactic to aid them in their quest: the Globe & Mail, which every year prints an epic 500 word crossword feature just before the break. The perfect diversion for collaborative intellectual stimulation, it would also reach their high income target Nationally, in a premium,
brand safe environment.
Taking over the feature, they would craft a custom spread designed as Holiday gift wrap that perfectly fit a bottle of Hendrick’s, encouraging purchase for gifting. After all, people couldn’t even go out to buy gift wrap; they’d be providing an essential service! This unusual, functional spread wasn’t the only surprise, for the gift wrap itself would be part of the gift!
Publishing December 19th, the final weekend before Christmas, the timing was perfect to incite purchase and gifting during the biggest spirits sales week of the year. They designed 3 components to make it happen. The first element was a most unusual gift wrap. The outside back page of the spread was designed as an unusually festive gift wrap, Hendrick’s themed of course. They mapped out a Hendrick’s bottle shaped outline on an interior page that would be the precise space to place the bottle, from there needing simply to be rolled up to result in the ‘gift wrap’ page surrounding the bottle. Two well placed pieces of twine tied together the ends of the paper around the bottle, forming a ‘cracker’ shaped present! No tape required, which was critical to avoid ripping the paper.
The second element was a gift within the gift, Hendrick’s Gin Presents Peculiar Puzzles. They collaborated with the writer of the Globe & Mail’s mammoth Holiday crossword to produce a one-of-a-kind Hendrick’s themed crossword and word search. Hendrick’s brand equity was influenced with inclusion of 42 associated clues and words like cucumber (its key differentiating infusion), curious, martini, unusual, superpremium, small batch, delectable, monty python, cocktail, and dozens more! From the recipient’s point of view, they receive an unusually wrapped gift, and the wrap itself is revealed to be part of the gift! A curious crossword and wonderful word search to banish boredom.
The third element was amplification with no dead ends. In a first, the Diversions section was the outside section of the paper, with a Hendrick’s Gin ad on the cover being the very first thing readers saw, directing them to the feature. Once they’d had their fun, readers were directed to visit an online answer page, which included links to liquor board ecommerce product pages, as well as the option to download the puzzles if you weren’t a G&M subscriber. A social campaign amplified the feature, directing to the puzzles so all Canadians could engage in deductive delight!
The campaign reached over 1.6MM curious Canadians during the highest sales week of the year and contributed to post campaign ad appreciation scores that were 4x norms. There was a 42% lift in Purchase Consideration for those that recalled the G&M ad. Those that recalled the G&M ad reported hugely heightened brand perceptions, including: 91% score for High Quality, 85% score for Stands Out, a whopping +51% lift of Cucumber Infused score and a +25% lift of Unusual score. The campaign contributed to a record 29.5% campaign sales lift YOY. The answers/ecommerce webpage exceeded sponsored content benchmark page views by 118%.
The social amplification ad demonstrated the feature made for engaging content, having the highest clickthrough rate of any Hendrick’s ads run during the campaign, contributing 12% of all clicks
with 6% of the budget.
Credits
Derek Laurendeau Planning Director Jungle MediaJessica Mieczkowska, National Brand Manager, PMA Canada
Sonja Tasovska, Project Manager, Globe & Mail
Peter Kiriakopoulos, Solutions Manager, Globe & Mail
Barbara Noack, Design Lead