Marketing 101: Wild Turkey made this Angus & Julia Stone show possible… Why?

Over the past few weeks, both Brown-Forman-owned Jack Daniel’s and Campari’s Wild Turkey have successfully partnered with major music activations in Sydney. This includes Jack Daniel’s supporting this G Flip concert and Wild Turkey conducting its Music 101 Mentorship Program in collaboration with Angus & Julia Stone and Studios 301.

Drinks Trade attended the first of two private concerts performed by Angus & Julia Stone as part of the Wild Turkey Music 101 Mentorship Program. Reflecting on the show, Angus Stone said it “was such a special night; there's nothing quite like performing to fellow artists.” 

The concert was the culmination of a three-day intensive mentorship program that saw the ten mentees attend six different music industry workshops. Looking back at the program, Julia Stone said, “as writers & performers, we shared some of the things we’ve learnt along the way, and passed on the best advice we got while starting out, and hopefully shared some things that we wished we knew when we were starting out.” 

The concert itself was a well-orchestrated affair, featuring a bespoke Wild Turkey cocktail menu, pre-show masterclass, and customised merch and brand displays. Given this attention to detail, and the distinctly music-focused crowd, Drinks Trade reached out to Campari’s Marketing Director for Australia to discuss the benefits that the Music 101 Program - which is now in its second year - brings to Wild Turkey. 

Paolo Marinoni said, “Creating music is not that different from the process of [Master Distillers] Jimmy, Eddie and now Bruce creating bourbon. Creating music is about time, passion and conviction, so we wanted to pretty much distil all of this into our Music 101 program. We wanted to give the next generation of Australian artists a stage for them to perform but at the same time armour [them] with [knowhow from] the best in the industry.”

According to Marinoni, the fact that two bourbon brands - Jack Daniel’s and Wild Turkey - supported Sydney concerts less than a week apart was “probably a coincidence in terms of that it's happened very close to each other.

“Overall, music plays a big role in most of people's lives. If you see who plays in music, it's not just bourbon brands... At any music festival, you have so many brands activating there because there's a captivating audience there. To me the most important thing is how you're doing it.” 

In short, Marinoni’s key piece of marketing advice is to stay authentic to a brand’s story and identity. 

“I think every brand has got a story to tell, and you don’t have to be a big brand to tell it. If you’re able to work with the likes of Angus and Julia Stone or Studios 301, that's brilliant as it will enrich your program, but it needs to be authentic.

“It's about the brand and the people behind these brands that really define it. When we talk about Wild Turkey, it’s about the legacy of Jimmy, Eddie and Bruce. This will live forever and that's what makes Wild Turkey and that's why the conviction - the trust in your spirit - is so crucial. That's why we’ve created the Music 101 Mentorship Program. It offers a stage to up-and-coming Australian voices, providing a platform to share their best stories in a celebration of community, music, conviction, and off course, bourbon.”

Paolo Marinoni also drew attention to the next stage of the Music 101 activation, which involves conducting live music shows in Campari’s on-premise venues across the country, as a key component of the overall campaign. 

“It’s not just the big activation that you've seen now,” he said. 

“We’re now inspired to reach every corner of Australia through partnerships with our on-premise venues – particularly regional pubs – and the trust your spirit message through music.”

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More insight from Drinks Trade’s conversation with Paolo Marinoni will be published soon.