The Campaign

We wanted to convey the beauty of craftsmanship, the timelessness of tradition and the art of simplicity in a digital world. For today's users to grasp - and appreciate - the concept, we knew we needed to "modernize" a piece of history, and successfully combined an old art form (paper cutting) with a current behavior (digital communication). We also launched the campaign during Chinese New Year, which was the perfect backdrop to combine tradition with modern sensibilities.

Creative Execution

We collaborated with a famous artist who practiced the traditional art of paper-cutting. The translation of Balvenie in Chinese is “One Hundred” and “Fortune,” so we asked him to create one hundred paper cutouts of different “fortunes.” On every cutout, there was a unique blessing. We then made digital versions available so people could send them to their friends and family. We also created “The Longest Red Envelope” exhibition in Taipei, featuring all 100 cutouts, as well as producing limited edition Chinese New Year boxes as collectors' items.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

The campaign prompted over one hundred media reports and over 370,000 people sent envelopes (every sixth person who visited the campaign site did so). Word of mouth helped drive awareness for both the campaign and The Balvenie. In fact, all our gift boxes sold out, and The Balvenie had the best performance of the year. Sales increased 20%, and brand awareness increased 200% (since then it's become a top-five whisky brand in Taiwan). We successfully delivered craftsmanship in the digital world.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Taiwan is a small country but they love their whisky. They're one of the top whisky drinking nations in the world. The Balvenie Whiskey is a historic Scottish brand that uses traditional, handcrafted procedures to make each bottle. We knew Taiwanese people would love us, but they didn't know who we were. Through this campaign we not only brought the brand to life; we raised it from the dead.

Chinese New Year is a magical time of the year. Despite everything technology has brought us, it hasn't removed the simple, timeless joy that comes from certain holidays. We wanted to tap into that magic and even provide some of our own by bringing back a classic, seasonal art form (paper cutting), but not in a stuffy, unsexy way. We wanted to make it modern and accessible, while still retaining everything that makes it so special. In essence this was the exact parallel of The Balvenie - a traditional, timeless product that was not well known because it refused to compromise in procedure, formula or even marketing (opting for simple, straightforward messaging as opposed to the glamour and gloss of their competition). In essence we created a hybrid campaign (old/new, traditional/modern) that perfectly aped the brand's own situation.