Discovery Channel: MOONSHINERS

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: DISCOVERY
Agency: OMD
Category: Publications & Media
Advertising campaign: MOONSHINERS
Interaction Designer: Adam Meyer (Tellart)
Project Manager/Ignition Factory: Erin Hauswirth (OMD)
Media Planner: Ileza Dantzig (Discovery Communications)
Strategist: Christina Mercadante (Resolution Media)
Associate Media Director: Dina Wall (OMD)
Account Manager: Roslyn Schoenbrun (Buzzfeed)
Media Manager: Ashley Collins (Discovery Communications)
Sales Director: Keith Hernandez (Buzzfeed)
Media Director: Seth Goren (Discovery Communications)
Coordinator: Taylor Shannon (Resolution Media)
Project Manager: Andrew Haarsager (Tellart)
Owner: Colin Spoelman (Kings County Distillery)
Director Of Sales Planning: Laura Casing (Buzzfeed)
Engineer: Matthew Brown (Tellart)
Digital Supervisor: Stephen Lieb (OMD)
Vp/Business Development: Tia Sollecito (Eprize)

Execution
We partnered with a local distillery to create the first-ever “tweet-powered” moonshine distillery. By tweeting @Discovery #moonshiners and hashtagging ingredients, flavor profile, and packaging, fans and moonshine enthusiasts alike could influence actual flavoring of the moonshine produced at the Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn, New York. Fans were able to watch the distillery live online to see their tweets take effect and witness the distiller produce moonshine in real-time. Select participants were also able to enter for a chance to win custom Moonshiners prize packs with select items from the set of the show delivered to them in actual moonshiner oak barrels. We worked with BuzzFeed to seed custom editorial content to build buzz around the activation and the show’s premiere.

Effectiveness
The tweet-powered distillery was a first-of-its-kind program that blurred lines between the digital and physical worlds, allowing people to take part in a digital process with a real-world implication by transforming fans into moonshiners themselves. Not only did the program offer fans an innovative way to interact with the brand, the program delivered impressive results. Over the course of the media campaign, there were over 35,000 mentions of #moonshiners on Twitter, generating more than 1MM earned impressions. More importantly, this second season premiere became Discovery’s highest rated Wednesday night series to date, as well as the #1 in primetime cable.

Strategy
November 2012 was a busy time in the US media space - with presidential election buzz at an all-time high, we knew that driving tune-in to the second season premiere of Discovery’s “Moonshiners” on 7 November would be more challenging than usual. In order to bring the television show to the forefront, we needed to find an inventive way to engage our target audience. “Moonshiners,” a series following those who illegally brew alcoholic moonshine in rural Appalachia, gives viewers the opportunity to witness practices rarely seen on television. The show taps into the innate curiosity of fans, exposing Americans to a less-seen side of their own backyard. Using the power of social media, we saw an opportunity to bring the essence of the show to real life. We gave potential viewers the chance to take part in the process of making moonshine by creating the first-ever tweet-powered moonshine distillery.