iris creates 360 mentoring experience following the launch of Symphony in Blue as a celebration of Johnnie Walker’s craftsmanship and heritage

Johnnie Walker has redefined its approach to luxury mentoring, with an Ultimate Immersive Mentoring Tool created by iris for its rarest blend, Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

Mentoring is an important and unique brand distinction for Johnnie Walker, providing opportunities to educate and immerse consumers in the brand across relevant points in the shopper journey.

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Wanting to target a new generation of whisky drinkers, Johnnie Walker needed the ability to take mentoring to a wider audience, outside of the traditional environment – which had been the same for decades.  The challenge for Johnnie Walker Blue Label, the distillery’s rarest blend – was that its flavour profile can seem complex to the uninitiated – and so having a brand ambassador present is intrinsic to the process.  And the brand has a limited number of those, so a quality Johnnie Walker mentoring experience was restricted to a lucky few.

Until now, tasked with finding a solution to this challenge, iris has created an Ultimate Immersive Mentoring experience, enabling local brand ambassadors to take quality whisky mentoring to a global audience.  Inspired by the whisky’s six flavours: Fresh, Fruit, Malt, Spice, Wood and Peat, the immersive flavour journey, available on both Android and iOS, puts the power of Johnnie Walker’s best Whisky Sommelier in the hands of the Brand Ambassadors anywhere in the world, who can now, regardless of their knowledge, deliver a world class whisky mentoring experience.

James Thompson, Global Managing Director of Diageo Reserve said,”Flowing from this theatrical extravaganza, our revolutionary new digital mentoring execution breaks the mould in its approach to consumer education. At its heart is the pioneering Symphony in Blue 360° Digital Mentor film, which raises the bar for mentoring by engaging with consumers directly and showcasing our liquid credentials of rarity and craft.”

Grant Hunter, Regional Creative Director iris APAC added, “We’ve created an immersive experience as well crafted as the blend itself. One that takes people on a new journey through flavour. The experience is designed to improve drinkers’ understanding of the 6 core flavours in Johnnie Walker Blue Label.”

The 360 digital platform that will run in three formats:

1)    An Ultimate Immersive Mentoring Tool on tablet (for iOS and Android)

2)    Online web activations

3)    Large scale immersive projections, shown at exclusive Johnnie Walker events

Beta testing of the experience saw a 38% increase in the recollection of the key flavours from those who experienced the immersive mentoring version.

The digital experience was conceived in close collaboration with creative digital production company, MediaMonks. Most notably on tablet, the experience is an example of modern-day craftsmanship, with different disciplines working in concert to form interactive worlds you can explore by moving the device around.

Wesley ter Haar, founder and COO of MediaMonks said, “As a production company, it doesn’t get much better than working for an iconic  brand like Johnnie Walker. They place an exceptional emphasis on craft, and this project has allowed us to consider details at an unseen level.”

In addition to this, iris has worked with Johnnie Walker on developing live mentoring experiences and opportunities, through exquisitely crafted and constructed ‘satellite events’ around the world. Using a combination of surround sound, large-scale projections, props and scents, guests will be transported into ‘immersive environments’ that embody the Blue Label blend.

The satellite events will be an extension of Symphony in Blue, an exclusive evening which took place in London in September, and which was celebrated as the world’s first whisky theatrical, experiential, musical and artistic journey.

Covering every touch point of the shopper journey, Johnnie Walker hopes to reach existing brand advocates, potential purchasers and one off luxury ‘gifters’ through the new mentoring approach.

The app will be rolled out across all key Johnnie Walker markets with launch events confirmed for 2015 in Malaysia, Indonesia, and South Africa.

Creative Credits –

Aljen Hoekstra, Post Production Lead, MediaMonks