Dive Brief:

• Bacardi’s Grey Goose vodka has partnered with Uninterrupted, a talent and athletic empowerment firm owned by SpringHill Company, to launch a YouTube series focused on cultural figures, per information shared with Marketing Dive.
• The six-part series, “The Shop: Lineup,” features influential people coming together to chat in a barbershop, a similar set up to what Uninterrupted has produced in the past, but guests will now be sipping a Grey Goose cocktail.  
• The show is the second time the two companies have partnered to create a YouTube series. In 2021, they produced “In the Moment” which featured one-on-one conversations with athletes hosted by journalist Cari Champion.

Dive Insight:

Grey Goose is looking to build on the sports foothold it created with its previous Uninterrupted series. The LeBron James co-founded firm specializes in helping athletes create advertisements that spotlight who they are beyond their athletic ability, often highlighting topics such as success and cultural and social issues.

The show is intended to be stylistically similar to Uninterrupted’s hit series “The Shop,” with has seen some episodes rake in millions of views on YouTube. Both shows are hosted by Maverick Carter, Paul Rivera and celebrity barber Brownie Blendz. However, unlike “The Shop” there is only one guest per episode in the Grey Goose-sponsored show and each episode will be contained to 5 or 6 minutes. The name “Lineup” is inspired by both the haircut and teamwork connotations. The first episode features Nyjah Huston, a skateboarding world champion. Future guests include Sloane Stephens, a U.S. Open Tennis Champion, and Masego, a singer-songwriter.

As consumer habits shift in response to pandemic restrictions lifting, rising inflation and other social changes, brands are seeking to connect with buyers on a deeper level. Programs such as “The Shop: Lineup” are able to do that through open conversations where the product is seemingly secondary to what else is going on. Such programs are able to help associate products with not only a celebrity, but also culture and advocacy. Additionally, the content spins off an already successful property, which may help bolster success.

While “Lineup” has many similarities with its parent show, it is remarkably different from Grey Goose and Uninterrupted’s first collaboration. “In the Moment” featured a conversation between a journalist and an athlete, but episodes spanned closer to 10 minutes in length. The vodka brand also played a much more central role to the show, with athletes having to look through a Grey Goose case to find three hidden items that relate to breakthrough moments in their lives. Grey Goose, while featured prominently, is not central to the new talk show, making the integration seem more natural.