Through their celebration of the NBA, Hennessy introduced fresh, new ways to drink cognac, and shifted brand perception from a one-dimensional, on the rocks beverage to the star-ingredient in delicious cocktails.
Hennessy has been a long-standing partner of the NBA (and numerous NBA teams) and celebrates everything and everyone that makes the game of basketball more than a game. Hennessy recently launched a new basketball focused campaign – “Without Your Spirit, It’s Only a Game”, which honors and recognizes basketball fandom. Every city has its own proud basketball culture, stories and legends.
Our challenge was to leverage Hennessy’s existing NBA partnership to shift perception and recruit the next generation of drinkers. Traditionally, Hennessy has been consumed in specific ways: neat, on the rocks or with coke, at night. So we tapped into an up and coming, culturally relevant partner to begin a shift those perceptions.
To begin, we took a closer look at Hennessy’s NBA partnership and NBA culture at large.
There is so much more to the NBA beyond the game. There’s a culture of social events, watch parties, analysis entertainment, even a culture of fashion and music. But the hard truth is: nobody is really an outright “fan of the NBA.” Loyal fandom lies with teams and players on a local level. So we decided we had to get out there and meet fans where they already are.
We harnessed the power of fan-favorite podcasts.
We partnered with two podcasts, hosted by beloved NBA players, with a combined monthly listenership of 800K.
Club 520, hosted by Jeff Teague
Point Forward hosted by Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner.
Hennessy’s podcast integrations felt authentic because the hosts were already Hennessy drinkers, so fans paid attention when their favorite players introduced new Hennessy cocktails throughout their shows.
We reinvented the Hennessy Arena and took it on the road.
In 2024, Hennessy re-introduced “Hennessy Arena”, a celebration of basketball culture and its fans. Hennessy Arena went on tour stopping at All-Star Weekend in Indiana, San Francisco, Dallas and Atlanta.
As part of each Hennessy Arena activation, Club 520 provided fans with a podcast experience, interviewing a local legends like Arike Ogunbowale, Baron Davis, Shawn Marion and Lou Williams.
Each podcast delivered a deep dive into the basketball culture of the city, and some never before heard stories and snippets from the legends. Fans were provided the ability to interact and engage through Q&A and meet/greets.
Meanwhile, Point Forward produced custom podcasts that explored the exciting intersection of sports, culture and of course, Hennessy.
We met fans on and off the court
and served up refreshing new cocktails.
At each stop, fans discovered a few of the brand’s new cocktails, like the Hennessy Margarita and the Hennessy Berry Mojito, which became fast favorites.
Each podcast episode served as an additional opportunity to introduce fans to the new slate of Hennessy cocktails.
The campaign was amplified with dark social promotion, more engaging audio, and eye-catching custom displays.
SCOREBOARD!
With the goal of broadening awareness of Hennessy as a drink to be mixed and enjoyed day and night, the campaign was successful on all fronts. Every stop on the Hennessy Arena tour was fully sold out, we ultimately reached 20 million fans (and counting…) and introduced them to a new way to enjoy Hennessy.
