A Digital Port of A Spirit of Discovery
A global consumer facing interactive brand website
Challenge
As one of the oldest gin brands in the world, Plymouth Gin has a rich history spanning over 200 years. There are a lot of stories squeezed into those couple of centuries…The mutually beneficial partnership with Lord Nelson and the Royal Navy. The creation of our hero cocktails – the Gimlet and Pink Gin – by sailors on the open sea. The renowned fondness for the brand from legendary bartender and author of The Savoy Cocktail book, Harry Craddock.
Our challenge was to turn these storytelling riches into a coherent narrative, one that will engage and educate the modern discerning audience looking for authenticity.
Solution
Our strategy was to craft a design-led platform to host the inspiring story of Plymouth Gin, putting our users at the centre and allowing them to discover the brand through their own exploration and immersive experience.
Activity
Working as a core unit of UX, Tech, Design and Copywriting our first steps were to analyse the plethora of stories that surround Plymouth Gin. Through this process we categorised the stories into five ‘chapters’ before crafting a beautiful homepage experience. This takes the user seamlessly through the chapters, allowing them to explore each strand of this iconic story with striking full-screen content.
Each new chapter plays host to a wealth of interactive multimedia deep-dives that help further depict the unique tale that is Plymouth and its gin. Creatively, we were careful not to juxtapose modernity with our rich heritage, beautifully crafting a style that is both classic and contemporary using inviting cinemagraphs alongside a mixture of modern and classic typographic design.
These stories and their tone don’t just enlighten visitors on the history of the brand. They also act as a navigational tool for the more hygiene elements of the site – harking back to the idea of discovery – allowing users to unearth more about the brand’s portfolio of gins and how to mix the perfect cocktails.
Result
This exciting experience for users that is now being used as a "best in class" example by Plymouth Gin's parent company Chivas Brothers Limited for engaging users digitally in a way that simultaneously celebrates a brand history and that brand’s continued relevancy in today’s world.
The average session duration has increased to 2:28mins. This is a healthy dwell suggesting good content and a good task orientated website.