Splendid achieved the best-practice award in the conversation-led media category as the campaign delivered high levels of engagement and participation amongst bartenders and consumers alike.

Diageo created the World Class program to celebrate cocktail culture and the art of bartending through an international search for the finest bartender in the world. With a global competition and community platform at the heart of it, the competition is designed to showcase the Reserve brands through the most prestigious bars and drinking experiences.

Splendid was responsible for the launch and media amplification of World Class in the Australian market. In addition to driving awareness amongst bartenders, Splendid Australia educated the media about Diageo’s luxury spirit portfolio and encouraged them to support local bartending talent and venues taking part in the competition.

The highly successful campaign achieved 90 pieces of coverage with total media impressions exceeding 12 million.

Diageo set up the Marketing Brilliance Awards to celebrate and reward its marketing agencies across all disciplines.

Splendid will focus on two new initiatives – Earth Hour Unplugged and the WWF Earth Hour Awards – using a combination of media relations, digital PR and ambassador management.

B&T Today covered the story. You can read more here or by clicking the image below.

The Challenge The digital amplification of the Diageo Reserve World Class programme, a celebration of the world’s best bartenders community.

The Insight Bartenders are continuously looking to elevate the craft of their profession through flair, creativity and skill. In addition, they are cultivators of trends, insights and inspiration both in the bar and increasingly, online.

The Idea To build a World Class community in social media, a place where the world’s best bartenders can connect, share, learn and become inspired.

The Work Splendid launched the World Class global community on four main social media channels, all of which were used to drive awareness of and increase engagement with the programme amongst the world’s bartenders.

At the heart of the campaign was the World Class search for the world’s best bartender competition, which culminated in a live global final held in New Delhi, India. Splendid added a social media enhancement to the finals by managing live commentary from two World Class judges, 9 influencers, 12 brand ambassadors and 18 super fans across all World Class social media channels.

The result Splendid created a highly engaged community and increased the number of World Class Facebook fans by 672% to almost 13,000 bartenders.

The Challenge Reinforce the position of the world’s leading spirit brand as a world leader in nightlife.

The Insight Dance is a consistent, central aspect in nightlife culture around the world.

The Idea Add a high profile, global dance competition to the 2011 Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project to celebrate dance culture around the world.

The work Smirnoff teamed up with Madonna as the project’s global dance visionary and held the first ever truly global dance competition to find a dancer to join the star’s 2012 tour.

Splendid was instrumental in leading all earned media activation for the US and UK dance auditions and the Nightlife Exchange Project globally.

The Result Our work achieved 1 billion press impressions for the campaign worldwide. Smirnoff became the most talked-about vodka brand online, with a 30% increase in share of voice, winning 87% of blogosphere conversation for vodka brands. On Facebook, Smirnoff received 5,000 likes for its cocktails and the public uploaded more than 8,000 photos.

As the brand’s first global PR agency, Splendid is tasked with creating standout, engaging global communications to further advance Nivea for Men in the fast-growing male grooming market.

To affirm the brand’s position as category innovator and global market leader in men’s facial care, Splendid will develop a global communications campaign that can be activated in local markets.

Splendid will lead all global PR activity from London with support from its New York and Sydney offices.

The Holmes Report ran the story here.

The Australian team were delighted to receive the award and have the Ketel One Commission recognised as a market-leading campaign and an example of best practice marketing.

Splendid Australia created the Ketel One Commission – a platform for Modern Craftsmen to restore craftsmanship to the modern world – with the aim of exemplifying the dedicated craftsmanship behind Ketel One and increasing awareness of the premium vodka.

Now in its 4^th year, Diageo Australia set up the annual Vendor Awards programme to acknowledge the valuable contribution of vendors to the Australian business as part of its culture of recognition and reward.

More information on the campaign can be found here.

.

Splendid also staged press events in London and Stockholm, making it the biggest media announcement in Spotify’s history. Audiences viewed the live stream, which additionally featured a speech by Rolling Stone’s founder and publisher, Jann Wenner, and a special acoustic performance by up-and-coming band ‘fun’.

Spotify Platform gives third party developers, including Billboard, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian, the opportunity to build innovative, engaging music-based apps. For example, users are now able to buy concert tickets, look for song lyrics and read album reviews while listening to music through Spotify.

Splendid teams based in London and New York were responsible for the media relations campaign around the press conference, which aimed to maximise media engagement and buzz ahead of the announcement; inviting key journalists to the three events in NYC, London and Stockholm; and achieving widespread coverage across the world, following the announcement.

Alison Bonny, head of communications at Spotify, said of Splendid: “I just wanted to say how massively grateful, impressed and thankful we are to have had you guys on our team over the last two weeks. We are hearing so much great feedback and can’t thank you enough for all your hard work and professionalism.”

With all aspects of the brand refreshed – from the menus to the uniforms, music and Milanese-inspired décor – key food journalists were introduced to a fresh, bold and authentic Italian food experience at the renovated Spring Street restaurant.

ASK Italian’s impressive team of experts responsible for the new enhancements were also present. Celebrated chef Theo Randall and master of wine Adrian Garforth shared their knowledge of Italian culture bringing the stories and inspiration behind ASK Italian’s key dishes and seasonal specials to life.

This year’s charity event was held at Nielsen Park, a stunning beachfront spot in Vaucluse, and was attended by the who’s who of Sydney’s fashion scene. Over 300 guests enjoyed fine food by Mark White of Katering, Pommery champagne, and summer-inspired cocktails.

Dr Chris Brown, star of Bondi Vet, was MC for the evening and called on guests to dig deep into their wallets and help raise funds via a silent auction.

SunSCHine was set up in 2010 by Splendid Australia’s Nikki Dunlop as a thank you to the staff at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick (SCH) who saved her daughter Pia’s life when she was just two years old.

In addition to Nikki Dunlop, the SunSCHine committee includes Splendid Australia’s Annalise Brown, Aussie fashion designer Peter Morrissey, shoe designer Terry Biviano, and ModelCo make up founder Shelley Barrett, among other influential Sydney-siders.

For further information on this wonderful cause please visit www.sunschine.com.au

Splendid Australia’s event management team produced the Bar Awards for the second year running. To ensure a memorable evening for all guests, the team successfully delivered pre-event production; sound and lighting production; talent management; catering and beverage management; and supplier, sponsor and venue liaison and management activities.

The Standard hosted a 400-strong crowd that celebrated the winners of this year’s awards and the new Bar Guide, which features more than 220 fantastic wine bars, small bars, pubs and cocktail bars in Sydney.

Lennox Hastie, a Brisbane boy who made his name at Spain’s Etxebarri, was at the helm of a one-night-only restaurant with Sydney restaurant gun John Fink (Quay, Otto). Delectable menu items included a giant seafood paella, a whole spit-roasted pig and a range of specialty smoked meats from Lennox’s handcrafted smoking oven.

A cutting-edge line-up of live entertainment included country-fried beauty Fanny Lumsden, contortionist Billie Bradshaw and hula hooper Bunny Hoop Star. DJs Joe Laney (GoodGod), James McInnes (Future Classic) and the Black Cherry gals kicked off the after party downstairs in Lo Fi.