Bringing Creators Behind the Curtain

Sagamore Spirit was the first major distillery to open in Maryland since Prohibition. Its business was built on a bid to restore the state’s mostly forgotten role and reputation in American whiskey. Rye whiskey, to be precise, which itself was on the road to restoration as an admired style.

The idea took hold, the liquid was phenomenal and Three Cheers was part of it from the start. Having established leadership in Maryland rye’s revival, and earning the credit for it, Sagamore wanted to take a more product-centric focus to set up its next growth phase.

“Barrel picks,” whereby distilleries invite their most important retailers to taste and choose barrels to be bottled exclusively for them, are a coveted practice and a way to experience a maker’s craft firsthand.

That practice inspired an idea to get high-influence whiskey content creators in on the game, with an opportunity to visit Sagamore Spirit’s country rickhouse, where its most precious stocks age, for a tasting experience that would extend to product development.

Nine different, fully aged barrels were tapped, and our creator guests blind tasted each. Consensus was built around which was best. The rest of that barrel was bottled up and named Creator’s Cask.

Every step was documented by the five participating creators, whose roles would be credited when it came time to launch the product. Each would then promote Creator’s Cask – and show how it came to life – on their channels.

Our creator partners loved the experience and generated 2x the content they were contracted to produce – 60 pieces of distinct content in total across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Non-boosted, longer-form YouTube content drove 11.5K views and 6K engagements.

While earned media wasn’t part of the program, creators themselves generated coverage of their work in whiskey bibles like UPROXX and Chilled.

The product completely sold old, 100% campaign- and link-attributed.