• by Tanya Gazdik , December 24, 2007

The first priority of Jim Beam's new holiday Web site is to strengthen the brand, but the spirits maker might sell a few extra bottles this holiday season as well, thanks to a unique feature that allows users to create their own personalized Jim Beam labels.

The site, jimbeam.com/holiday07, features "The "Labelizer," which allows users to upload photos of themselves, which then become a part of the Beam family as the "Beam Holiday Guest" on the side of the label on the Beam bottle. The labels can be printed and placed on bottles of Jim Beam.

This is Jim Beam's first holiday Web site, says Michelle Tucker, solutions director at Wirestone | Chicago, which created the site. Since launching earlier this month, it has garnered more than a 6% click-through rate in its first week online, Tucker says. The site has attracted multiple visits from every continent, she says.

Wirestone has been Deerfield, Ill.-based Jim Beam's interactive agency of record for Jim Beam since 1999.

Additional activities on the site, which includes plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor, include a design your own eCard feature. Visitors not only get to send the virtual holiday greeting to multiple friends, but the eCard also offers a "drink voucher" that site visitors can give friends in exchange for a future purchase of Jim Beam products.

Using the "Fred FAQ" function, the site allows visitors the opportunity to pose questions to a real Beam family member--Fred Noe, seventh-generation Beam family distiller and brand ambassador. Fred, in elfin garb, greets visitors to the site and offers up answers to questions commonly asked at this time of year.