Bringing the Ultimate City 
Experience to Co-Working 
Spaces With Auchentoshan’s Malt Whisky

Brand Experiences 

Born & Raised In The City

Distilled in the heart of Glasgow, Auchentoshan is an urban city single malt whisky. An easy-to-drink spirit perfect for mixing and sharing, making it the drink of choice for any city dweller. 

Looking to connect to a younger generation of drinkers, Beam Suntory sought to raise brand awareness for Auchentoshan as a New Age malt whisky. Typically seen as a serious gentleman drink, the challenge was to shape the audiences’ perception of this whisky into one of fun with friends and urban life through this marketing campaign.

Better Shared

Inline with Auchentoshan’s global message “Better Shared” and tagline of “Born & Raised in the City”, we personified Auchentoshan as the friend who always knows the ins and outs of the city: The insider ready to share their knowledge, showing others the coolest hidden finds and making meaningful connections. 

We paired Auchentoshan with the world’s largest co-working brand in 2019, WeWork – An ideal match with its demographic and outlets located across the city. This set the basis of our campaign, Auchentoshan Urban Sessions (AUS): A series of 7 activations where Auchentoshan curates the latest things to do in the city, introducing co-working members from different backgrounds to people of the city who share their skills relevant to this fast-paced urban life. 

Auchentoshan Urban Sessions was positioned to be engaging and unexpected – reflecting the vibrancy of Auchentoshan and how the brand does things differently. Each AUS evening rounded off with a casual session where members could mingle and converse over a selection of curated Auchentoshan cocktails.

Cheers To An Exciting Evening Ahead

Diving into a wide network of collaborators, we invited well-known, bright industry minds to host the sessions, providing diverse and enriching experiences for members. The programmes created together with our collaborators imparted useful skills for the city dweller, while weaving in information about Auchentoshan and whisky-related knowledge. 

A total of 7 exciting sessions were hosted ranging from
Entertaining with Cocktails to Urban Gardening.
The sessions were created based on 3 pillars of content:

1. Enriching skills

Beneficial in a professional context yet also applicable in day-to-day life.

Kamil Haque, creative director of Haque Centre of Acting & Creativity (HCAC) shared his thespian knowledge on how to strike meaningful conversations with strangers and also improving one’s public speaking skills through an interactive workshop.

2. Survival skills for the city

Navigating the city with essential skills and help from Auchentoshan.

Whether it was learning interior and party tips from Qanvast, entertaining with cocktails with Head Bartender Demitria Dana of Skai Bar or growing cocktail garnishes with Edible Garden City, our activations united groups together for an enjoyable night.

3. Auchentoshan know-hows

Tips for enjoying Auchentoshan for the city-dweller.

Our third programming content pillar featured Auchentoshan brand ambassadors demonstrating their exclusive cocktail recipes for members to enjoy with friends, after which members had the chance to create their own drink at Auchentoshan’s mobile bar. 

Other marketing opportunities were created with Auchentoshan's partnership to extend the brand’s presence in WeWork, such as arranging for Auchentoshan to host Happy Hour sessions for WeWork members, providing special price packages for WeWork members interested in purchasing Auchentoshan bottles, as well as the creation of infographics and videography to capture the AUS highlights for members who weren’t able to attend.

Some Dram Good Fun

Auchentoshan Urban Sessions was well-received by members who were impressed by how Auchentoshan tied such unique topics to whisky. The skills learnt were highly relatable and memorable with members. WeWork personnel commended the initiatives as being different from the usual content done at their locations. The feedback from all the participating WeWork locations was consistent with positive sentiments and interest from members to purchase Auchentoshan bottles.

“It is very interesting that Auchentoshan has paired up with different events such as Public Speaking and Urban Gardening, things that are very useful in our daily lives.” 

– WeWork Member, 22 Cross St

“Very interactive, the members enjoyed it and loved the session.”

– Community Lead, WeWork Funan

All AUS sessions were publicized on WeWork’s members portal to over 6000 local members. Through our introduction, Auchentoshan joined WeWork’s worldwide benefits programme, thus enabling the Auchentoshan promotions to reach 527K members in 111 cities. 

Through the sessions, we were excited to see firsthand the meaningful connections being made. Beyond the attendees interacting with each other, our collaborators were invited separately for further WeWork initiatives. Post-campaign, WeWork community leads also continued to reach out to Auchentoshan to collaborate for further events, such as celebrating their outlets’ anniversaries. It was fulfilling to help connect, create and build a lasting relationship between Auchentoshan and WeWork.

We are thankful for the opportunity to play a role in Auchentoshan’s annual marketing campaign, creating experiences that highlight their urban roots and providing a genuine experience for their customers to thrive in the city.

OuterEdit Collaborators

Urban Session Hosts
Demitria Dana 
Edible Garden City 
Haque Centre of Acting & Creativity (HCAC)
Qanvast

Venue Sponsor
WeWork

Photos and videos courtesy of Auchentoshan