Reintroducing a Japanese-American Whiskey

The Challenge

Heading into the 2024 holiday season, Takamine Whiskey wanted to turn seasonal whiskey interest into action at the retail level.

With distribution in select markets but limited brand awareness in the U.S., their team set a clear goal: drive whiskey enthusiasts to retail locations during the peak Christmas and New Year shopping window.

The challenge wasn’t just about awareness. It was about geo-targeting high-intent consumers in four competitive urban markets—Atlanta, Minneapolis, New York, and Chicago—where the whiskey shelf is crowded and consumer attention is fleeting.

In Chicago, an additional challenge emerged: promoting a limited release vintage bottle, available only in select retail stores.

The Solution

The Brand Leader® developed a hyper-targeted, retail-focused digital strategy that met whiskey lovers where they were—both physically and digitally.

• Geo-Specific Paid Social Campaigns:
  We launched paid Meta campaigns in each market, carefully geotargeted to drive traffic to Takamine’s online retailer locator. Our goal was to get people not just to click—but to search for a retailer near them.
• Limited Release Messaging (Chicago-specific):
  In Chicago, we layered in messaging promoting the exclusive availability of vintage bottles, building urgency and driving local searches.

Results

• 300%

  Increase in retailer locator searches

• 58%

  Under target for cost per retail search action

Massive Increase in Retail Locator Searches:
Retailer locator searches on the Takamine website surged, contributing to the site’s highest monthly search total since launch (up nearly 300% month-over-month).

High Search-to-Proximity Relevance:
Across Atlanta, Minneapolis, New York, and Chicago, average distance between searcher and retailer was less than 1 mile, demonstrating that we reached highly localized, purchase-ready audiences.

Cost Efficiency:
Achieved retail search actions at $1.26 per search, beating the client’s $3 target by more than 50%, maximizing budget efficiency.

Market-Specific Engagement:
Chicago, where we promoted the limited vintage release, saw a notably higher clickthrough and search rate compared to other cities, highlighting the impact of exclusive product messaging.