Responses by Roy Burns III, design director, Lewis.
Background: The Kentucky Bourbon Trail was facing a unique challenge: its own success. What started 25 years ago as a modest initiative among seven distilleries to showcase their hospitality and craftsmanship had blossomed into a world-renowned destination, now featuring 46 distilleries and counting. As the Bourbon Trail approached its 25th anniversary, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association turned to us to overhaul their brand identity and offer strategic guidance on the brand to better prepare it for the next generation of visitors.
Design thinking: As part of a newly minted, recently unveiled rebrand, we created a multiplatform creative campaign with messaging crafted to better position a Kentucky Bourbon Trail that had grown and transformed in exciting and even unexpected ways since its inception. Our core idea: today’s Kentucky Bourbon Trail is an attainable, world-class experience that is best enjoyed when savored.
Our approach was rooted in recognizing the remarkable growth of the Bourbon Trail over the past 25 years as well as the increasing appetite for Bourbon from an ever-widening audience. In the last five years especially, the Bourbon Trail had begun catering to a new generation of visitors seeking a more refined, “sippable” experience. The revamped brand and campaign were crafted to convey this new reality, highlighting the excitement, adventure and allure of the Trail for those eager to explore its rich offerings.
Visual influences: The campaign’s overall tone was a logical extension of a rebrand that took inspiration from the rich visual history of Bourbon packaging and culture as well as the distilling process itself. We also drew upon the visual vernacular of expeditionary signage and symbols—trail signs and so forth. All of this was filtered through art direction and language with an elegant, sophisticated tone, not unlike some of the most successful luxury brands. With this approach, we painted a picture that would leave room for the consumer to inhabit.
Specific project demands: With a budget primarily earmarked for discovery and strategy development, identity design development, and the creation of a new digital experience, the creative team leaned heavily on the visual resources of distillery partners alongside a spare selection of stock imagery. Photography and video assets with varying degrees of finesse were repurposed and adjusted where necessary to best complement the identity and the developed tonal approach.
New lessons: We recently capped off the rebrand and creative campaign launch with an immensely successful global, 24-hour-long World Bourbon Toast streamed live on YouTube, aimed at engaging with bourbon enthusiasts—novice and aficionado alike—around the world while increasing awareness of the storied tradition of “America’s Native Spirit” and the vibrant evolution of Kentucky Bourbon Trail. The buzz generated before, during and after belies the fact that the entire event, the first of its kind for us, was conceived, staged and promoted in little more than a month. Next time, we’ll allow more time for the lead-up—and, more importantly, ample time for recovery.
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