NEW YORK — HBO scored a hit with “The Penguin,” the spin-off of the 2022 film “The Batman” that stars Colin Farrell as the titular gangster. The show notched 5.3 million viewers during its opening week and has since been viewed by 12.5 million people across platforms, making it a sizable platform for brand partner Jefferson’s Bourbon.
“I'm a big believer in partnerships,” said Laura Galietta, executive vice president and head of brand strategy and solutions at Warner Bros. Discovery, during a panel at Advertising Week New York. “The best partnerships are the ones that elevate both brands, and where you find the ethos and connection between the two that makes both properties sing.”
The partnership kicked off in July at San Diego Comic-Con, which featured a recreation of the Penguin’s lair, the Iceberg Lounge, that served exclusive Jefferson’s cocktails. Last month, the brands came together for an invite-only, influencer-heavy dinner at celeb-favorite Emilio's Ballato in New York. When “The Penguin” debuted on Sept. 19, Jefferson’s was featured in a custom title sponsorship.
Jefferson's Bourbon was founded in 1997 and joined the Pernod Ricard portfolio in 2019 after its acquisition of parent company Castle Brands. Despite its rich tradition, the specific requirements for a spirit to be classified as a bourbon leads to a lack of brand distinction and a “sea of sameness” in the category, explained Jenny Hermanson, senior director of omnimedia strategy at Pernod Ricard.
“We wanted to find a partner and an opportunity to tell our brand story in an unexpected way, and I think ‘The Penguin’ presented such a great opportunity for us because the story was very akin [to ours] in that it was all about the unconventional rise and character of [Oz “The Penguin” Cobb],” Hermanson said during the panel.
“The Penguin” is a crime drama set in the world of Gotham City established in the most recent “Batman” film. At first glance, a dark and violent show about a comic-book gangster might not seem like a suitable fit for a bourbon brand, but that wasn’t the case for Jefferson’s.
“Our brand is born from a very untraditional aging processes — one of our SKUs is aged out at sea — and so we wanted to tell that distinct story,” Hermanson said. “We wanted to focus on the backstory of our brand, similar to what the show is about, the backstory of Penguin.”
Life cycle of a partnership
Warner Bros. Discovery takes a thoughtful approach to partnerships on HBO and Max due to the premium positioning of the platform and content and the intentional nature of streaming in which consumers vote with attention and time, explained Ryan Gould, head of digital ad sales at Warner Bros. Discovery.
“As projects go from development to get greenlit, our team gets read into the creative ethos and storyline,” Gould said. “We understand the quality of the content, we understand the storyline and the nature of the content, and then we start to build a prospect list of the brands that we want to go out and partner with.”
For Warner Bros. Discovery, the life cycle of IP doesn’t start the day of premiere and end with the finale, hence why the Jefferson’s partnership began two months before “The Penguin” debuted. The show immediately put up strong viewership numbers and has continued to grow momentum, due in some part to the real-life activations, influencer engagement, social and paid media.
“We're moving away from a world that's just put in one ad in a spot, or just a logo. Fans expect more than that. If you can do it right, the value for everyone is immense,” Gould said.
Driving culture
Brands that partner with Warner Bros. Discovery not only work with Galietta’s brand strategy and solutions team, but a group within that team called Courageous Studios. The in-house brand studio helps create additional branded content, like a long-form video that plays before episodes of “The Penguin” that captures the world and style of the show through animation.
“We wanted to maintain the integrity of our brand message, but we also saw value in the show, and we wanted to stay true and authentic to the show,” Hermanson said. “We weren't just trying to insert the brand just because it was going to be a trending show — there needed to be a value exchange there.”
Partnerships like the one with Jefferson’s allow Warner Bros. Discovery to flex its marketing muscle without diluting the power of its ad platforms or the equity of brands like HBO, a network whose IP has claimed a prominent role in pop culture for about four decades.
“The easy thing for us to do as a company would be to have significantly high ad loads and sell into these assets through multiple creatives that break every seven to 12 minutes,” Gould said. “We don't believe that's a long-term viable option for IP that, quite frankly, drives culture.”
