Free gin for delayed commuters in Gordon’s Gin stunt

Targeting a tech-savvy and younger audience than might be naturally associated with the brand, Gordon’s Gin offered free – or discounted – G&Ts in a bid to cheer up delayed commuters last Friday.

With a long, and possibly for many dry, January in the rear-view mirror, free (or cheap) booze is always likely to be a winner. It’s a tactic also recently employed by Lone Wolf Spirits’ gin, with this vending machine stunt. It’s hard to forget this top billboard effort from Carlsberg in 2015, too.

Launched at Waterloo – one of the capital’s most delayed train stations, according to this coverage of the stunt on the Standard – Gordon’s Gin’s #YayDelay monitored real-time delays and tweets to ‘pinpoint when a free G&T would be most welcome’.

Commuters were asked to keep an eye on campaign micro-site yaydelay.com between 5-6pm to see if any delays and subsequent social media huffery had birthed an online voucher, which could then be redeemed for a free or discounted glass of gin at The Beer House, a nearby pub.

Based on this tweet, sent 10 minutes before the end of the promotion, the counter had yet to hit 50% based on delays, at which point commuters would have been able to get themselves a half-price glass.

Come on @SW_Railway – just a few more delayed trains would do it! @GordonsGinUK #YayDelay pic.twitter.com/9eplwWDfeH

— Jamie (@_jamesparkin_) February 2, 2018

A clever if (probably purposely) faffy idea, picking up widespread coverage on the likes of the Metro, Lad Bible, HuffPost, Joe, TrendHunter, Shortlist and many other outlets.

Involved agency: The Romans

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