Westland Flagship - Trade Toolkit

THE TASTE OF THE WEST

Helping Westland Distillery Simplify their Message and Broaden their Appeal

Background

Westland Distillery is an American Single Malt distillery based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 2010, the distillery was acquired by Remy Cointreau in 2016. Westland draws inspiration from its surrounding environment and has adopted multiple innovative practices in its endeavour to unlock new flavours and lead the industry towards greater sustainability. The brand has a cult-like following amongst whisk(e)y aficionados and has been awarded many times for its products. The company is a B-Corp certified.

Brief

Focusing specifically on Westland’s ‘Flagship’ single malt - the entry-level product in the range, the task was to find ways to introduce Westland to a broader demographic – national hotel bars and restaurant chains. This meant finding ways to take the brand beyond its most hardcore followers and, without alienating them, position the product to an audience which is less knowledgeable about whiskey and less interested in the deep, process-heavy detail Westland traditionally leads with. As Jason Moore, MD of Westland put it, “Our communications style needs to move from a long-form podcast, to a 10-second Instagram reel”.

Approach

At its core, this was a storytelling challenge: finding the narrative which would engage a wide set of venues and their customers, without losing the essence of what makes Westland special. We set about exploring this through extensive immersion into the brand, the product and, most importantly, the audience, via depth interviews with experts within the industry. This enabled us to identify the key success criteria for engaging decision-makers in hotel and restaurants, whilst pinpointing the key messages to emphasise in our work.

Strategy

We learned from our research that Westland’s current wilderness-driven brand world didn’t translate easily into the bar world on its own. Bar teams just didn’t have the words to translate it into terms consumers could understand. What was clear from the research was that a simplified message was needed, and that place was the key. Westland’s location in the Pacific Northwest connects everything they do – a terroir that’s closer to Scotland’s than other ‘American Whiskeys’; the coffee, wine and brewing influence on their processes; the sense of duty towards the land; the determination to do things differently. This insight underpinned our strategy and core idea “The Taste of the West” – a brilliantly simple line which connected the dots on the solution we created, and which offered a simple, memorable phrase to describe the product.

Solution

Mr Lyan Studio designed 7 signature cocktail serves, emphasising the core ‘Taste of the West’ message and other aspects, whilst applying the product to approachable and delicious cocktails. The ‘Ritual Serve’ - a straight dram of Westland Flagship, served with a bowl of trail mix, acted both to connect consumers to the rugged landscape of the West, whilst highlighting the tasting notes within the whiskey. Cocktails included the Westland Coffee, a take on an Espresso Martini, emphasising Seattle’s coffee culture; and the Pacific Old Fashioned, which uses a stout syrup, highlighting the influence of brewing methods on Westland’s production processes.

We produced 8 short films, featuring Ryan Chetiyawardana (Mr Lyan) to introduce the product and each of the cocktails, using Ryan’s voice and influence within the bar world to lend additional emphasis and credibility. We designed and built a new, trade-facing online toolkit www.bartenderfieldguide.com to hold the content, to be used by Remy Cointreau as a sales tool, and by venues themselves for information, inspiration and training.

Launch

The final stage of the project was a launch party for industry and consumers, held at London’s Seed Library – a Mr Lyan Venue. Cocktails from the range designed by Mr Lyan Studio were served, alongside speeches from Remy Cointreau, Westland and Mr Lyan Studio, announcing the partnership and introducing the cocktails.

Jason Moore, Managing Director of Westland Distillery: “It’s unique to find a partner who is truly passionate about your brand, but also has the perfect combination of experience and capabilities to bring your project to life. Working with Mr Lyan Studio was a top-notch experience from start to finish. They became a true extension of our team, immersing themselves in our brand while bringing fresh ideas to the table to help us craft a compelling experience to bring Westland to a new generation of bartenders."

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Summary of scope: