Taking advantage of a date that comes once every thousand years, McIlhenny Co., maker of the ubiquitous Tabasco brand pepper sauce, produced the world’s largest Bloody Mary for what was billed as the world’s largest hangover venue, New Year’s Day in New Orleans.
Taking advantage of a date that comes once every thousand years,
McIlhenny Co., maker of the ubiquitous Tabasco brand pepper sauce,
produced the world’s largest Bloody Mary for what was billed as the
world’s largest hangover venue, New Year’s Day in New Orleans.
Despite the media’s preoccupation with all things Y2K, ’Tabasco’s
Millennium Mary: The World’s Largest Bloody Mary’ counted on the annual
hunger for feature pieces dealing with hangover remedies - and as a
result got the brand portrayed as ’fun but slightly irreverent.’
Strategy
The original idea was to have the event right after Mardi Gras. ’But
with it being Ash Wednesday and New Orleans being a very devout, if
libertine, city, we decided that wasn’t the time to do it,’ says Hunter
& Associates VP Jonathan Lyon.
Another switch was with the venue: the original location fell through -
almost literally - when the city of New Orleans determined that the
site, a hollow pier, wouldn’t support the weight of the filled
glass.
So the event was moved to Latrobe Park in the French Quarter.
The agency also had to deal with the tricky task of timing its jump into
the news cycle to avoid being drowned out by the Christmas holiday. If
it struck too soon, explains Hunter senior account executive Dakkan
Abbe, the campaign could have been lost in the sea of e-retailing
stories.
Tactics
Arranging for the production of a clear-acrylic, 7,500-pound Bloody Mary
glass proved difficult, forcing the agency to go through several
manufacturers who, fearing lawsuits if the glass broke, declined to make
it. A Maryland company finally signed on.
On December 21, Hunter sent out 50 ’Millennial Hangover Kits’ to
journalists.
Designed like a first-aid kit, it included Bloody Mary mix and a
mini-bottle of Finlandia vodka, which cooperated in the promotion. In
addition to sending out alerts to major network morning shows, national
newspapers and magazines, Abbe and Lyon contacted more than 300 major
daily newspapers.
On a sunny and warm New Year’s morning, with a thousand gallons of
virgin Bloody Mary, eight caterers served a crowd of 3,800 from 10 am to
2 pm, with lines forming around the block.
Four bouncers checked I.D.s (adults were allowed to put vodka in the
Bloody Mary mix taken from the giant glass), and crowds of woozy New
Orleans residents and tourists drank, danced and scooped up 200 free
T-shirts while listening to a local Dixieland jazz band.
Results
In the days before January 1, the event got major hits in USA Today and
on CNN Headline News as well as significant radio coverage. On New
Year’s Eve, there were mentions of the campaign - and the brand - on
CBS’ Craig Kilborn Show and Fox News. And shortly before midnight, New
Orleans time, ABC anchor Peter Jennings mentioned the event as well as
the Tabasco brand, says Abbe, with a potential for 150 million
impressions. On New Year’s Day, the Associated Press published a story
on the event. There were a total of 107 individual broadcasts of network
feeds and b-roll on local, national and cable news. Hunter has yet to
receive results of newspaper coverage.
Though they waited until December 21 to publicize the event, even more
crucial than timing was luck; the campaign benefited from the fact that
there were no significant Y2K-related disruptions to divert media
attention.
’Up until we went there was really too much Y2K hysteria,’ says
Lyon.
’Suddenly, everyone turned to what was going on with New Year’s Eve
parties.’
Future
Though he thinks the effort was a success, McIlhenny company president
Paul McIlhenny couldn’t think of another occasion that would warrant
such a one-of-a-kind event. He adds: ’I had not heard in recent memory
of a more appropriate topical promotion, thinking about everyone
celebrating the last New Year’s Eve of the century, and thereby
incurring the biggest hangover of all time.’
Client: McIlhenny Co. (Avery Island, LA)
PR Team: Hunter & Associates (New York)
Campaign: Tabasco’s Millennium Mary: The World’s Largest Bloody Mary
Time Frame: August 1999 to January 1, 2000
Budget: dollars 200,000
