Jameson asks Twitter users to vote for their favorite St. Patrick's Day bar

Brief:

Jameson Irish Whiskey kicked off its national St. Patrick's Day promotion with a Twitter challenge that asks people to vote for their favorite bar for a chance to win a party on March 17. The Pernod Ricard liquor brand aims to bring people together by celebrating local bars for shaping "the culture and spirit of a neighborhood," according to a company announcement.
Jameson asks people to tweet the hashtag #MeetMeAtTheBar along with a state-specific tag with a postal abbreviation, such as #MeetMeInNY or #MeetMeInTX. Fans also can vote at Jameson's #MeetMeAtTheBar website.
The state with the most votes will win a St. Patrick's Day celebration hosted by Jameson and musician Anderson .Paak. Voting is limited to five votes per person each day. Jameson will close voting on Feb. 29 and announce the winning state on March 2, per the announcement.

Insight:

Jameson's "Meet Me at the Bar" campaign for St. Patrick's Day aims to reach people through social media while encouraging them to gather in real life at their local watering holes. The theme is reminiscent of Miller Lite's campaign last fall that urged people to unfollow its own social media accounts and have a beer in person with friends. While Jameson isn't promising to host a party at a specific local bar, it's giving loyal customers a chance to participate in a real-life event by voting for their home state.

In combining a social media contest with an experience, the spirits brand can engage an audience of young adults who are typically more difficult to reach through traditional channels like broadcast TV and print. Millennials and Generation Z tend to seek out original adventures they can share on social media, challenging marketers to adopt experiential marketing strategies to engage them, multiple studies have found.

This year's campaign follows Jameson's collaboration last year with Anderson .Paak on a similar "#LoveTheBar" promotion that offered rebates on St. Patrick's Day cocktails via Facebook Messenger. In 2017, Jameson created age-gated Snapchat geofilters for Canadian consumers that shared dynamic messages and also ran a sweepstakes on its social channels.

Jameson is among the alcohol brands that this year have created social media campaigns to engage younger audiences and extend their campaigns' reach. Guinness, Diageo's Irish stout brand, this week unveiled a multichannel campaign for St. Patrick's Day that asks Instagram users to participate by offering to donate money to charity with every post featuring the brand. Before the Super Bowl last month, Budweiser debuted specialized labeling for social sharing and recruited influencers to highlight the brand around the big game. Anheuser-Busch's Natural Light this year began offering free beer to anyone who turned 21 by rebating their purchase.