Belfast Live has a long history of working closely with the Old Bushmills Distillery, having helped with the Black Bush Stories series of events for several years and, more recently, spreading the word about the iconic whiskey producer's contributions to the Irish whiskey revival. When they approached us with a brief for the third series of releases in their incredible Causeway Collection, we jumped at the chance. Not only are the 2022 releases innovative, boundary-pushing Irish whiskeys, but they are also the first to be overseen by Bushmills' recently appointed Master Blender, Alex Thomas. We felt the key to the campaign would be tapping into the dual roles of innovation and tradition that have come to define Bushmills in recent years, and telling Alex's story was an important part of that.

Smarts told us that this year Bushmills Irish Whiskey was launching two expressions from its highly anticipated 2022 Causeway Collection which was available to purchase exclusively on the Island of Ireland - including a world's first. The collection itself features 10 stunning new rare and innovative expressions including the two bottles released exclusively for the island of Ireland. The 2002 will be the world's first ever Vermouth Cask finished Irish Single Malt Whiskey to go to market and a really exciting innovation from the world's oldest licensed whiskey distillery. The target audience was the 30-50 age mark and of course people interested in premium whiskey/luxury items - 'the refined whiskey drinker'. We proposed two elements to the campaign - a competition and an interview with Alex Thomas - Bushmills Master Blender.

In summary, we achieved almost 1k competition entries, 4k page views, total social reach of just over 42.5k and more than 1.2k social engagements. The competition offered the opportunity for four individual readers to win a Causeway Collection 3.0 Luxury Tasting Kit (RRP £170) which included both small bottle tastings, a premium hip flask & premium glasses. Check out the competition www.belfastlive.co.uk/bushmills The interview with Alex was to help users understand how luxurious and rare the product was, with all its characteristics and to push on the fact that it is a limited edition!!