Johnnie Walker: Expanding the brand’s demographic through social media

Reaching new audiences

World-renowned Scotch whisky brand, Johnnie Walker, is considered a vintage brand with a very niche audience. Lately the demographic for hero products Black Label and Blue Label has been an older demographic. The brand needed to strengthen its Hong Kong and Macau social media presence across Facebook and Instagram to reach a younger audience, change public perceptions by creating a more approachable image, and boost sales.

Revitalising the online presence

Johnnie Walker is perceived as a vintage brand for an older demographic in Hong Kong and Macau with minimal engagement across social platforms. They needed a strategy that would reinvent the communication direction for Black Label to focus on a younger audience, and for Blue Label, a more information-driven narrative to highlight the uniqueness and rarity of the product. We updated their positioning to be vintage, yet one that can be enjoyed in various stylish ways and for numerous occasions.

We utilised trending content formats such as Instagram Stories, Instagram Live and bite-size videos to increase users’ interactions and enhance engagement and introduce new home recipes. We amplified partnerships, such as their Game of Thrones collaboration through social media giveaways to maximise user’s engagement. We applied an on-going advertising strategy to achieve objectives such as website traffic, engagement and generating sales, and used Facebook Ads to increase reach, engagement and gain new Page Likes from targeted audiences at the lowest cost possible. The ads were conversion-focused in order to gain trackable tractions.

New audiences, engaged and active

With the new strategy in place, Johnnie Walker obtained over 350 new followers each month across their social media platforms, over 500,000 social media users were reached on average each month, and during a two-week advertising campaign on social media there were 52 direct online sales conversions. Data across Johnnie Walker’s social platforms in Hong Kong and Macau now shows that the most engaged users are male who are 25-34 years old, demonstrating that their long-term objective was met, additionally there was 4 percent engagement rate on average due to the new content that appeared during the course of the campaign.