Howler Head
Howler Head, the official flavored whiskey of Ultimate Fighting Championship, appointed WePlay to launch their product into the US and UK markets with an integrated marketing strategy.
Howler Head
Howler Head, the official flavored whiskey of Ultimate Fighting Championship, appointed WePlay to launch their product into the US and UK markets with an integrated marketing strategy.
Howler Head, launched in 2021, is a high-quality Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey with a natural banana flavor.
They are also the official flavored whiskey partner of Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC).
For this challenger brand, WePlay developed an integrated marketing approach to delivering the playful, irreverent Howler Head message whilst raising its presence on social media and driving sales.
Our approach focused on creativity and media, to tell the Howler Head story across social, whilst utilising paid media to amplify the brand and drive sales of the product.
As a partner to Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC), our media team used data and market research to identify the core audience as UFC/MMA-interested individuals. We then activated against this audience and built our growth and acquisition strategies around their geography, media consumption habits, and attitudes towards brands – phasing our communications primarily around the UFC schedule and wider eco-system.
Creative content was developed to reflect the brand’s distinctive character with bold typography, bespoke stylised graphics and impactful messaging.
Our strategy was initiated by a comprehensive marketing plan that focused on
- Building awareness of the brand amongst the core UFC fanbase
- Expediting social growth by reaching relevant audiences with captivating creative
- Driving engaged Howler Head fans to purchase with direct messaging
- Identifying and connecting with audiences outside of UFC fans
- Amplifying reach and engagement of competitions and organic content to build the brand
Additional activity focused on activation around live events, pay-per-views, and dialing up the engagement with core UFC and fight fans.
To extend the reach further, we partnered with a variety of in-market influencers whose followers connected with the core Howler Head demographic, as well as UFC athletes and UFC President, Dana White. We worked closely with the influencers to produce content that drove engagement, social growth, and, importantly, bottle sales.
For the historic return of UFC to the world’s most famous combat sports arena, Madison Square Garden in New York City for UFC 281, WePlay created an awareness campaign to maximise exposure of the UFC partnership.
Our creative team produced bespoke UFC 281 assets for the big screens in and around the arena, as well as producing content for UFC 281 to engage our target audiences across paid and organic media, podcasts, social channels and digital out-of-home displays.
Our work with Howler Head has supported the growth of the brand into one of the fastest-growing whiskey brands on the market today. This brand growth has also led the Campari Group to purchase a 15% stake in the flavored Bourbon brand and pledge to take Howler Head global in the coming years.
What a fantastic success story!
17m
Unique impressions across social, programmatic display and video
1,400%
Y-o-Y growth of Howler Head social media audience
2
Markets launched (US & UK)
