Jim Beam touts its inner ‘stuff’

While Jim Beam’s marketing has long focused on the quality of the drink inside the bottle, the brand’s new effort is a high-concept, cross-channel campaign that champions the stuff inside not just its bottles but individuals and organiza­tions as well.

“The stuff inside” campaign aims to associate a personality with the Jim Beam brand that embodies the integrity, char­acter and sense of tradition that the com­pany has tried to associate with the drink itself via previous marketing efforts.

Appearing on print ads that will begin in the July issues of magazines such as ESPN, Rolling Stone, Blender and Garage are scannable tags that interact with con­sumers’ mobile phones and take them to “Stuff inside” content.

The campaign is built around engaging consumers in a conversation and encour­aging their involvement in various orga­nizations through print ads, billboards, in-market events and online marketing efforts, which drive consumers back to a Web site that launched in May.

“Jim Beam wants to be where people are having conversations,” said Rory Finlay, SVP and global CMO at Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc. “What is probably most different about what we’re doing today is using traditional advertising to direct people to a place where they can have a conversation about the brand.”

The focus of the print ads, the Web site and other marketing materials is on the individuals and organizations that the company has pinpointed as having “The stuff inside.” Finlay said that the cause marketing idea came about after “we looked at successful brands today, [and] we saw that it’s not just what a brand says but what it does that counts.”

Jim Beam will invest 100% of its 2008 marketing budget into the campaign. Its partners include Zezza Networks for the Web site and BBDO for the creative.

A billboard that went up last week outside Wrigley Field directing fans toSaveOurName.com was one of the first legs of the campaign. The move is in response to The Tribune Co., which owns Wrigley Field, floating the idea of selling the naming rights to the Chicago Cubs ballpark. Jim Beam will also hand out T-shirts and bumper stickers at games.

The Wrigley Field push is an example of how the campaign is enabling Jim Beam to bring its message to the local level. This “makes the message really relevant in a way that is maybe more difficult to do when things are nationally oriented,” Fin­lay explained. It hopes to identify future subjects through Web site comments.