• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, June 8, 2012

Jack Daniel’s has unveiled a revamped global site (www.jackdaniels.com).  

One key change: The site now incorporates responsive design.

“It’s been several years since our site was redone, and consumer habits have changed,” Carmen D'Ascendis, director of global marketing for Jack Daniels, tells Marketing Daily. “Just 11% of our site viewers were coming from mobile and tablets, and we wanted to address that.”

The responsive site design enables the brand to optimize the user experience based on the device being used, whether  desktop/laptop, tablet or mobile, notes Matt Howell, global chief digital officer for the brand’s agency, Arnold Worldwide, which proposed the solution.

The site is also being streamlined on other fronts. The former site was translated into 22 languages; the new one –- which will be available in 185 countries -- will be translated into about 12 to 15. (The still-in-development revamped site currently offers seven separate English-language versions for various global markets.)
Also, the new site’s structure will enable the brand’s regional markets around the world to feature localized campaign/promotional efforts while leveraging the global site’s traffic, rather than building/maintaining offshoot microsites, as some did in the past. (Overall, the global site’s traffic over the past 12 months averaged about 55% international, 45% U.S., and non-U.S. traffic has been growing at a faster pace, according to D'Ascendis.)

The site’s content has also been revamped. 

The home page now features a scrolling, multimedia-enhanced timeline of key moments throughout the brand’s 137-year history. Other content is now organized into five areas: Whiskey (detailed info on all products in its portfolio); Visit Us (info on touring its Lynchburg, Tenn., distillery, where to stay, etc.); Recipes, Experience (info on Jack Daniels’ current events, including its Zac Brown Band tour); and The Store (an e-commerce area offering a plethora of its branded products, including apparel and home/collectibles items). 

D'Ascendis notes that mobile users are more likely to access recipes and other functional content on the site, whereas the brand history and other more in-depth content tends to be most accessed by desktop/laptop users.

The revamped site’s home-page historical timeline also turns out to be a preview of Jack Daniels’ latest creative direction, in that it prominently features the theme of “independence” -- both in direct relationship to the brand’s history and by offering independence-oriented, inspiring stories of entrepreneurs and well-known “champions.”  For example, the timeline includes a link to a “Gentleman Jack” microsite offering a video featuring former NBA star-turned-TV NBA analyst Kenny Smith talking about what inspired him to succeed.  

Independence has always been one of Jack Daniels’ core values, and is a central concept in the brand’s current, “Here’s to the American Spirit” (or “As American as…”) campaign, says D'Ascendis. But starting in mid-July in markets outside the U.S., and this fall in the U.S., new TV spots and other creative will put an even greater emphasis on independence, he reports. 

The new ad campaign – along with already-in-progress promotions through the brand’s Facebook presence (in total, its global Facebook pages have about 6 million “likes”, says D'Ascendis ) -- will drive consumers to visit the brand’s site. 

The campaign’s media elements will vary by country/market. In the U.S., they will include (in addition to TV spots and Facebook promos) banner ads on targeted sites, site takeovers, radio and “giant wallscapes,” according to D'Ascendis.

Even before the latest ad campaign has launched, the global site’s revamp is producing lifts in JD’s already-substantial (about 250,000 uniques per month) site traffic, D'Ascendis reports.

Jack Daniels’ largest markets are the U.S., U.K., Germany, Australia and France.