Wild Turkey Takes You to Kentucky Bourbon Country Via Audio-Guided Tastings

More than 2.5 million people have visited the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in the last five years. Naturally, the trail has gone cold the past several months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has made it difficult for whiskey enthusiasts to go to their favorite distilleries in person. Wild Turkey is hoping to console whiskey aficionados by bridging the physical distance between their homes and its Lawrenceburg, Kentucky distillery via guided tastings accessible through Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant devices. The Campari-owned bourbon brand partnered with Havas CX and audio platform Voicify to launch the voice-activated experience. The project takes listeners on a guided tasting led by Wild Turkey's Russell family of distillers, as well as creative director and actor Matthew McConaughey. Distilling the appeal of whiskey at home The brand came up with the voice activation as a way to satisfy consumers' need for more unique activities to do at home, said Andrea Sengara, vp of marketing at Campari America. The concept also reflects the rising sales of interactive audio devices: Venture capital firm Loup Ventures projects 75% of U.S. households will have at least one smart speaker by 2025. At the same time, consumers are warming up to voice-enabled shopping. “There is tremendous interest in learning more about American whiskey heritage, the distillation process and different products," Sengara said. "Coupling our renowned master distillers with this burgeoning technology is a way to drive both consumer consideration and ecommerce sales, since a guided tasting works best when you can sample along at home.” The experience, which launched Feb. 2, begins when a person says to their Amazon Echo device, “Alexa, enable Wild Turkey Tasting.” (For those with a Google Assistant, the spoken command is, “Hey Google, talk to Wild Turkey Tasting.”) From there, four members of the Russell family lend their voices to the guide. Users can learn about the distilling process, glassware, and how to properly make and taste whiskey-based cocktails. The experience directs users to five varieties (depending on which product they announce to the voice assistant): Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon, Wild Turkey 101 Rye, Rare Breed Bourbon, Longbranch and Kentucky Spirit. Audio outreach Voice-activated device owners who don’t have a Wild Turkey product won't be left out of the experience. The program also caters to people who have questions about whiskey tasting in general, such as “Can I add water to my whiskey?” or “Tell me a fun fact about whiskey.” Additionally, fans of the Longbranch line can unlock a special message from McConaughey, who co-created that brand. James Huerta, executive director of creative technology at Havas CX, explained that the challenge in creating the audio experience was to ensure it “stayed true to native assistant functionality while weaving in the brand’s storytelling.” “We didn’t want members of the Russell family doing the functional moments, and instead invited them to the experience as experts,” Huerta added. “There’s no question the synthetic voice is useful for creating a lot of things, but in terms of creating what really feels like a branded moment, listening to an actual human voice really makes it more effective.” An audio taste test As a pilot program for Wild Turkey, Sengara said the brand will be analyzing specific sets of data produced from the experience. This includes the number of interactions, time spent with the experience, which products were used the most and how often people return to the experience. While the program has only been live for two days, Sengara said internal testing found that during 1,100 sessions, the average time spent with the experience was 3.5 minutes. “This is a test-and-learn project to find out how people engage with our brand in this space and for us to determine where we go from here,” Sengara said. “General consumer behaviors are shifting so quickly. We’re prioritizing ensuring our brands are in the right places and showing up in the right way.”