johnnie walker
making a global icon
Capabilities:
When it comes to far-reaching goals, it’s hard to beat Salvador Dalí who proudly declared: “At the age of six, I wanted to be a cook. At seven, I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.”
Johnnie Walker is no Spanish surrealist, but its philosophy of progress is the same. And our vision for the brand was of a similar ilk.
This is the story of how we turned a whisky producer into a global icon and doubled its sales worldwide.
$2.2bn
Incremental growth
2x
No. of cases sold over 15 years
In 1999, Johnnie Walker was elbows deep in a brand identity crisis. It had become ‘Dad’s drink’. Sales weren’t great either, down 14% over three years.
Progress, not heritage.
Johnnie Walker had a proud history. But the brand was stuck looking at the past.
So we resurrected the Striding Man, Johnnie Walker’s iconic logo, with one small tweak: We flipped him so it appeared he was walking forwards. This idea – Keep Walking – set the brand on a famous journey envied and admired by their competitors.
We made ads that saw some big names face their demons, including a spot in which Harvey Keitel confronts a pack of lions in a Roman coliseum.
After that, we saw man take his first evolutionary step in Fish.
Next up, we let the logo off the leash. In Icons – a series of global print ads that strolled off with three IPA awards – the Striding Man takes off and leaves all kinds of hairy situations in his wake.
Soon, the campaign got itchy feet and was off travelling the world. In The Giant, our Brazilian ad, we brought to life the awakening of a nation — a campaign so powerful its iconography was used at national protests two years later. In China, where talking about personal progress is generally frowned upon, we created a series of films toasting communal success.
From silver screen productions to digital manifestations, for 15 years the campaign journeyed the world — and made Johnnie Walker one of the first truly global brands.