INDUSTRY AWARDS

Whisky brand’s dedicated pan-African campaign honoured in London

By our News Team | 2022

Johnnie Walker’s 50-minute brand film showcases great examples of human endeavour and change-making progress on the continent.

Johnnie Walker whisky’s first dedicated pan-African media and content campaign has won a Grand Prix and a Gold at the World Media Awards held in London recently.

The campaign is entitled ‘The Ones Who … Keep Walking’ and ties in with the brand’s famous ‘Keep Walking’ campaign slogan that was launched in 1999.

According to a media statement released by Johnnie Walker, ‘The Ones Who … Keep Walking’ is a true pan-African media and content campaign with storytelling at its core.

Photo credit: Johnnie Walker

“The 50-minute film showcased some of the greatest examples of human endeavour and change-making progress in Africa. It aimed to be a film of inspiration,” the statement says.

The award from the World Media Awards is given in recognition of brands, agencies and media partners who – together – create the most effective cross-platform, cross-border, content-driven advertising campaigns.

Collaboration with in-market client and agency teams

Ad agency OMD Africa collaborated with the content creators and the in-market client and agency teams to deliver continental media first. It did this by bringing two competing TV networks together to showcase and create awareness for the campaign.

“United by a shared passion for storytelling, the networks premiered the film in prime time across their most popular entertainment channels, placing Johnnie Walker firmly in culture, out of the watershed, and away from competing brands,” the media statement says.

The Johnnie Walker film was seen by over 40-million people across 16 different TV channels in 13 countries. It was broadcast in two different languages and supported by digital, influencer and OOH campaigns.

The World Media Awards judges called it “a meaningful and disruptive campaign – a smart way to navigate regulatory challenges, with strong brand alignment”.

“Only through true collaboration with brave clients, talented creative agencies and true media partners is it possible to deliver a campaign of this calibre,” said Cameron Maclear, Managing Director at OMG Africa.

Johnnie Walker’s ‘Keep Walking’ concept is meant to emphasise the importance of moving from task to task in the accomplishment of a greater goal, rather than getting overwhelmed by the magnitude of an overall challenge.

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