In 2014 The Glenlivet (TGL) wanted to honour its heritage and salute its rich history in a unique way with its Canadian appreciators. In Canada, the Glenlivet already fostered a loyal inner-circle of single-malt enthusiasts known as The “Glenlivet Guardians” - but the brand wanted to develop this community further and create deeper, personalized new Guardians.

In a first-ever release of its kind, The Glenlivet offered a one-time opportunity available only to its Scotch whisky lovers in Canada: the release of a one-of-a-kind, hand-selected single cask. The bottling was to honour one of the original Guardians, Captain John Gordon Smith Grant, descendent of The Glenlivet founder, George Grant. A pilot in World War One, and missing heir to The Glenlivet Distillery, Captain Grant was wounded in action and received care at a Canadian field hospital in Doullens, France. His funeral was presided over by the RC Bishop of London, Ontario. To commemorate this brave young man and his historic ties to Canada, a very limited number of bottles of this rare single malt release would ever be poured.

With less than 300 bottles of Squadron 70 available, Hill + Knowlton Strategies needed to identify their most devoted Canadian Guardians to pay special tribute to the significance of each bottle. They reached out to their Guardian community by way of highly personalized emails, which in turn drove them to a personalized microsite where they were offered the opportunity to gain access to local events to be hosted by global brand ambassador Ian Logan, where they’d have the opportunity to purchase a bottle of the rare cask not available at retail. Those who registered for the Squadron 70 events were able to track the cask’s journey from Scotland to Canada and dig into a library of rich content about its origins including videos, tasting notes, a countdown clock to the cask’s release and much more.

A digital ad buy drove more people to enlist as Guardians, so they too could join the ranks to access the rare single malt’s release.

The pièce de résistance? While waiting for their bottles to arrive, each Guardian who registered to attend the exclusive events received a bespoke video message from the distillery’s global ambassador, via email where they bore witness to their bottle of Squadron 70 being poured directly from the cask at the distillery in Scotland and signed.

Participating Guardians received their personal bottles at immersive tasting events nationwide hosted by both The Glenlivet’s global and Canadian ambassadors and enjoyed a unique food and Scotch pairing experience.

The Guardian community — and Canadian Scotch whisky fans in general — were captivated by the Squadron 70 program. The bottles of the rare single cask sold out almost immediately and online, Hill + Knowlton Strategies saw a spike in engagement as their audience grew increasingly invested in following their bottle’s journey.

Over the six-week campaign, 402 new Canadian Guardians , equating to 57% of all Guardians, registered for that year. More than 800,000 social impressions were achieved, with 14,063 unique engagements.