Johnnie Walker launches star-studded campaign

Leading Scotch whisky brand Johnnie Walker has recruited sport and entertainment stars including F1 driver Jenson Button and actor Jude Law for its biggest ever global marketing campaign.

Actor Jude Law has joined a star-studded cast for Johnnie Walker’s new campaign (Photo: Diageo)

The ‘Joy Will Take You Further’ campaign is an evolution of the brand’s hugely successful ‘Keep Walking’ campaign, which was created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty join 2000 and has since helped to generate a reported $2.2bn (£1.4bn) in retail sales.

The new campaign, developed in partnership with the brand’s global creative agency, Anomaly, “represents a new perspective on personal progress”, the company said, and is intended to drive the next decade of growth for the brand.

The campaign aims to “brings to life the art of blending and the blenders who create the world’s most iconic Scotch whisky” through mentoring and customer experiences, as well as a television commercial, print and digital advertising, point of sale materials and digital content.

The campaign will be lauched simultaneously in more than 50 countries and is expected to reach around 270 million consumers within the first weeks of launch.

It features stars such as Formula One World Champion Jenson Button, Oscar-nominated actor Jude Law, Chinese actor Zhao Wei, US rock band OK Go and Mexican supermodel Montserrat Oliver.

Guy Escolme, Johnnie Walker global brand director, said that the new campaign, which draws on “decades of research”, challenged the conventional wisdom that success guarantees happiness and instead celebrates the fact that happiness leads to success.

The Johnnie Walker portfolio ranges from Blue Label, one of the world’s most expensive whiskies, to Red Label, the best-selling Scotch whisky in the world.

Syl Saller, chief marketing officer of Johnnie Walker owner Diageo, said: “The launch of Keep Walking marked a fundamental shift in the way scotch was marketed and kick-started a decade of transformational growth for both Johnnie Walker and the category as a whole.

“I am hugely excited about the potential of this new campaign to drive Johnnie Walker forward to the next decade of growth. It is rooted in deep consumer insight and tells true stories of people who have truly walked with joy. This is a great example of an incredibly strong idea that is brought to life with outstanding creative.”

The new ‘Joy Will Take You Further’ television commercial from Johnnie Walker can be viewed here.