Jameson

Refreshing for relevancy while respecting tradition

Challenge

Jameson Irish Whiskey has long been applauded as one of Pernod-Ricard’s most successful brands. Despite the business stability and industry accolades, Jameson recognized that the world of whiskey was quickly changing. Jameson, with its traditional, more classic whiskey codes, risked seeming outdated among a rapidly evolving competitive set with a variety of newer, more modern players.

Our challenge was clear: uncover a way for Jameson to maintain a competitive edge in a quickly evolving and expanding category, without losing the sense of heritage and tradition that has become a key equity and quality cue for the brand.

Clarity

Despite Jameson’s more traditional visual cues, the overarching brand’s personality takes on a much more current, relatable, and aspirational tone. While a disconnect between the pack and the brand essence was apparent, we quickly learned that changing any element of the Jameson Original Pack could easily turn off brand advocates who valued the family story and heritage that underpinned the design.

In order to win with consumers, we needed to unpack all of the visual, verbal, and sensorial equities of the bottle and pouring experience to ensure that the most passionate Jameson drinkers would always be able to recognize the subtle details they love, while uncovering opportunities to refresh the classic bottle to better express the brand essence and attract new Jameson drinkers.

Aligning the iconic Jameson bottle with the brand’s personality

Solution

Clear worked with the Irish Distillers team to pull apart the careful nuance between tradition and traditional. Through qualitative research and market immersions with target consumers and bartenders across the US, Europe, and Africa, we identified and prioritized the individual pack attributes that needed to be preserved, and what could be enhanced to modernize the brand. We assessed each unique brand element for both distinctiveness and relevance in finalizing our opportunity assessment and recommendations for equity elements to maintain, improve, and champion.

Based on our insights, we then explored a variety of creative territories, bringing to life the tenets of heritage, authenticity, and approachability to further assess the levers available in refreshing the brand and implications for the design solutions. Finally, in order to ensure that the strategy was fully realized, we delivered an actionable creative brief to eradicate the gap between the brand personality and the pack design and refresh the brand for growth.

Impact

The launch of a new Jameson pack in 2019 contributed to a record-breaking year with 8 million cases sold globally.