Ahead of the season three premiere of HBO’s “The White Lotus” on Feb. 16, the network is leaning into brand partnerships to help expand its audience, capture consumer attention across multiple touchpoints and build upon the series’ influence on pop culture.
The show’s luxurious setting—a fictional resort chain named “The White Lotus”—lends itself well to a partnerships approach, according to Andrew Meengren, VP of HBO and Max Originals Marketing, because it allows the network to broaden its target market through natural commercial tie-ins within other categories, including travel, spirits and hospitality.
“Knowing that the season two finale was over two years ago, we have the big job of trying to reactivate that rabid fanbase for season three, while expanding it to a big and broader audience,” Meengren says. “You have to go across multiple touchpoints to really get your message to break through. These partnerships help provide another way in with those consumers, to get them to be aware and remember and to tune in come February 16.”
For instance, the series’ official spirits partners, Diageo’s Ketel One Vodka and Tanqueray Gin, have launched the “Sip into The White Lotus” campaign, which is anchored by an original short film starring Patrick Schwarzenegger, a new, third-season cast member. The activation also includes custom cocktails inspired by the show, kits for purchase on Cocktail Currier, viewing parties in more than 100 bars and restaurants across the country, and a sweepstakes with a chance to win a trip to a luxury hotel in Thailand, the location of season three.
Diageo benefits from being associated with the show’s themes of luxury and hospitality—while steering clear of heavy-handed marketing messages. “We’re looking to partner with folks that enable us to bring these experiences to life in a very vivid way,” says Julia Yufe, SVP of Vodka, Gin, Rum at Diageo North America. “When you look at the content that we developed with Patrick… it brings fans very close to the story, to the location where “The White Lotus” is happening. It gives them little hints and clues, and in a way that you would not have if you were just making a traditional advertisement or trying to push a traditional functional message.”
We spoke with Meengren and Yufe about the series partnership, its multiplatform marketing approach and how the brands are working together to expand their respective audiences.
Chief Marketer: What are the key marketing elements of the partnership?
Julia Yufe, SVP of Vodka, Gin, Rum at DIAGEO North America: At the heart of our partnership, which we’re calling “Sip into The White Lotus,” is some content that aims to bring consumers closer to the experience that would be enjoyed at the White Lotus. It’s building anticipation for the third season that we know our consumers love. We have content that stars Patrick Schwarzenegger, who’s one of the newest cast members. He’s also a self-declared cocktail connoisseur. We’ve worked with him in the past, actually, on Kettle One, and he happens to be a big enthusiast of craft cocktails.
He tries to give consumers an invitation, if you will, to the White Lotus and what it’s all about, to the experiences of Thailand via a Ketel One and Tanqueray White Lotus Vesper Martini, which is a cocktail that is reminiscent of some of the tastes and palette of Thailand. In addition, we are launching with Cocktail Courier some cocktail kits based off of these bespoke cocktails. Consumers can enjoy these flavors at home as well as at watch parties and events in real life across different cities in the U.S. We also have a sweepstakes, where consumers will have the chance to win a getaway to a luxury Thai resort.
Andrew Meengren, VP of HBO and Max Originals Marketing: On “The White Lotus” side, we want to build off the success of season two and continue to catapult the series into pop culture. [We] have curated a great set of partners across multiple categories, so consumers can get and feel a little luxury at home for themselves. So, partners like Diageo are perfect because they reflect that classic, timeless hospitality and luxury that the show is known for.
[We’re] looking to compliment everything Julie’s doing with a fully robust social approach leveraging all the great content they’re doing with Patrick, but organic content on social as well. We’re looking to bring everything to life at our marquee event at the Four Seasons Westlake that will bring themes of the show to life as well as marquee photo moments and will give influencer tastemakers the chance to have a little bit of “The White Lotus” for themselves, but also to experience these great cocktails that Diageo has crafted across the campaign. It’s a way to be the capstone, or the crescendo of the campaign… and to bring everything together in a holistic, organic way so they can touch and feel it for themselves. We’re looking to do that later on in the season to make sure we can capitalize on the fan fervor, as it’s one of those shows where the word of mouth really grows week over week.
JY: But we’ve already started seeding the content that we developed, [through] teasers… There will be in-store and displays, and there are menu placements that riff off of these two bespoke cocktails made with Ketel and Tanqueray. So the excitement is building at multiple touchpoints as well.
CM: Given that you’re in different industries, your goals here will be different. What does success look like for both brands?
JY: First and foremost, to build off of the excitement, this moment in culture, because the themes that “The White Lotus” represents are very much in sync with Ketel One and Tanqueray. We want to inspire how consumers (of legal drinking age) can enjoy this timeless luxury, these moments that are explored in the show, at home for themselves.
AM: On the HBO side, knowing that the season two finale was over two years ago, we have the big job of trying to reactivate that rabid fanbase for season three, while expanding it to a big and broader audience. Historically, the show has played more in this prestige area of television, but going more mass [and] partnering with great brands like Diageo helps us reach even more organically-aligned consumers and viewers to be potential fans of series. And then [it’s] propagating and further propelling the show into the cultural zeitgeist. It was one of those series you couldn’t miss when it was on air. [We’re] making sure that we keep [it in] every touchpoint in a consumer’s day-to-day to make sure they can’t miss “The White Lotus” when it’s on air for those eight weeks.
CM: Andrew, there are a lot of sponsors for this show. How do you ensure that each brand stands out and finds value in the partnership?
AM: When you look at the holistic parts of strategy for a series, it’s bespoke to each one. Not every series lends itself well to a partnerships approach. A show like “The White Lotus” naturally has commercial tie-ins, but it is a hotel, it is luxury. It’s very ambitious and aspirational. So it felt like an organic, easy way in to extend the reach of our campaign, beyond our own nuts and bolts of spots and dots and media, but looking at partners to extend and augment and bring to life what we can’t do on screen.
And looking at partners like Diageo, we wanted to make sure we picked the best in every category. Certain ones naturally rose to the top based on their own brand recognition, the IP, et cetera, but they each embody luxury in their own way in different touchpoints, whether it’s travel, spirits, hospitality, et cetera. But each have hooked into the show in a discrete way that made it special for each brand.
CM: In general, how have series sponsorships evolved over the past few years?
AM: I can only speak to the campaign that I’ve directly impacted, but looking at how we’ve interacted with sponsorships and advertising in general, consumers are much more savvy. They’re much more allergic to just traditional advertising. So the more they can feel organic, bespoke, and sort of interrupting their day-to-day in thumb-stopping ways and social, the more effective those will be. And it’s not relying upon one channel. You have to go across multiple touchpoints to really get your message to break through. So, these partnerships help provide another way in with those consumers, to get them to be aware and remember and to tune in come February 16.
JY: On the other side of things, we’re looking to partner with folks that enable us to bring these experiences to life in a very vivid way. When you look at the content with Patrick that we developed in partnership that kicks off this campaign, it brings fans very close to the story, to the location where “The White Lotus” is happening. It gives them little hints and clues and in a way that you would not have if you were just making a traditional advertisement or trying to push a traditional functional message.
CM: How does Diageo decide which brands to partner with?
JY: We’re very intentional because, again, we want to make sure we’re talking to legal-drinking-age consumers with messages that are relevant, that are authentic and that really bring to life what the brand values and represents. Here, this is about elevated experience, it’s about hospitality and it’s about choiceful details that really elevate the cocktail experience for consumers. “The White Lotus” team at HBO helped us to do that in a very pointed way.
CM: How are your brands working together to market the series?
AM: On our side, there are marking tactics and channels that we organically don’t appear in. Ketel One and Tanqueray can help us reach consumers in their everyday lives. For us, it’s on-screen; Ketel One and Tanqueray are our off-platform sponsors. We’ll have that reach directly with the consumers, but also across our social channels organically. And being a part of that conversation week over week will be important for them—to be a part of the pop culture moment, to get that association and to be part of that overall buzz.
JY: For us it’s really about the inspiration that we get and the ability to participate in the conversation around “The White Lotus,” which we know our consumers care a lot about. The fact that we can bring these experiences to our physical touchpoints as well is a nice compliment to the spaces and places where they play.
Featured image photo credit: Ketel One Vodka & Tanqueray Gin
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