Dive Brief:
- Jim Beam is promoting its new Devil’s Cut bourbon using virtual reality to enable consumers (21 and over) to take a virtual tour of how Jim Beam is made by making the user a virtual whiskey shot traveling through the distillery.
- Hosted at sampling events, this digital virtual reality experience offers a new, tech-savvy way for consumers to augment their drinkable sample of Jim Beam products and help it stand out from other bourbons.
- According to Fortune, "When users take off the VR headset, the virtual shot glass has become a real shot glass with a sample ready for them to drink."
Dive Insight:
Jim Beam hopes to use virtual reality as a way to appeal to target customers who crossover between whiskey drinkers and early tech adopters, but it's not the only liquor brand to do so.
Patron previously used virtual reality to attract customers by offering a virtual video distillery tour. Dos Equis used virtual reality headsets to play a video of the brand's Most Interesting Man in the World spokesman, and sales increased by 18% during the campaign. Jim Beam takes this one step further by offering an even more intimate look at the company by implanting customers into the perspective of the whiskey itself as it moves through the distillery from barrel to bottle.
This is a new source of brand engagement for Jim Beam, Patron, Dos Equis, and other brands who incorporate this type of high-tech idea into their marketing strategy. More food and beverage companies are discovering that tech can be a valuable way to get in touch with consumers, and this is one example of a way brands can make technology work for them.