Jack Daniels Doffs Myths For Authenticity

Carmen D'Ascendis, director of global marketing at Brown-Forman Corporation and Wade Devers, group creative director at Arnold talked about Jack Daniels at the ANA Creativity Conference on Wednesday. Arnold is AOR for the Lynchburg spirits maker.

Devers  said the message has departed from storybook myths about Lynchburg, which was a staple of 70's and 80's JD ads, to more realistic relevance messaging. "It was an 'aw shucks approach that was essential for that time because media choices were limited. It was the third column in Playboy." He said the recent work is about truth of place.  "People are looking for brands that are more authentic," he said. "Not storybook fantasy expressions. Lynchburg is not a secret anymore. Recent expressions have been more truthful, less storybook."


D'Ascendis said is also not afraid of media fragmentation but is embracing it. "We are not running from it. We wrestled with social, but now that we have figured out that we have to tell stories, communicate brand personality, the challenge is to figure out how to do it, and have exploded on Facebook; we have amazing engagement rates." He said that, rather than chasing "likes" the company is going after engagement. For what it's worth the company has a lot of "likes," 3.5 million or so.. 

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