Jim Beam: Messaging

Is there anything else around Beam and how you really looked to use the heritage and story of Beam, to really bring it to life, in terms of the channels you used and the message you gave consumers?

Yes. The channels are really important. First of all, you are going to be channel-limited, in spirits. It will vary by country, but you are going to be somewhat channel limited. You have to be very careful about marketing to children and there’s some countries where you can’t advertise spirits on television, so that will vary greatly. But because of that, you also have to make content that can be used. Not all stories can be told in any format. If you can only tell your story in a film and it needs to told and broadcast on television, that’s probably not going to work, to get your story out there in spirits. You are limited on your broadcast, you are probably limited on your spend. You are going to spend a whole lot of money making something that is not going to get a lot of time and energy.

In certain countries, where there are less limitations, it could vary. You’ve got to really understand what you’re working with. In any brand that I’ve worked on – and this was true at Uber – heritage matters. It doesn’t matter if you are 10 years old, 200 years old. There are companies that want to relaunch as something that they weren’t born as. I didn’t happen to work in those companies. The last three that I’ve worked in, were born something and they were proud of that. Massive disruptors, family legacies, stood the test of time brands that can bring people together and be for everyone. Heritage, in all three, was extraordinarily important. It needs to be respected but it needs to remain relevant.

In Beam, that was what we did. It was, what about family today, matters? The fabric of family looks different today. They’re not traditional, the way they used to be. Friends are family, for many people. It’s not, necessarily, about representing two parents, two children, who look like this. That wasn’t it. It’s about understanding what family means. How you stand by each other. What family does; less who family is. I think that was how we made our messaging around family. They may move on from that, but it was certainly an important piece, when I was there.