Hpnotiq
To revitalize its brand and reach younger audiences, Hpnotiq partnered with (amp) to shift from original campaigns to aligning with culturally relevant moments like the NBA Playoffs. By tapping into ESPN and iHeartMedia’s top basketball podcasts and amplifying social content, the campaign delivered over 22 million impressions—successfully reestablishing Hpnotiq’s presence among multicultural millennials and heritage fans alike.
The Results | iHeartMedia
Increase
In Impressions
Million
Impressions
CPM
How (amp) generated a slam dunk for Hpnotiq liqueur
With its mesmerizing sky-blue color, Hpnotiq is an instantly recognizable liqueur made from a unique blend of tropical fruit, vodka, and cognac bottled in France by Heaven Hill Distilleries. Hpnotiq first hit the shelves in 2001, when it quickly became popular among leading hip-hop performers like Missy Elliot, Jay-Z, Lil’ Kim, and Fabulous, who mentioned the liqueur in at least four of his songs, including the 2002 hit single “This is My Party.”
But when the Hpnotiq brand team first approached (amp) in 2017, its Gen X market was maturing, and it needed to remind consumers that it still existed, while also increasing awareness of Hpnotiq among Millennials and other younger audiences that were now coming of legal drinking age. At (amp), we had already been crafting highly effective campaigns for multiple brands within the Heaven Hill portfolio, so we were excited to take on a new challenge within the spirits category.
Initial work and media strategy
As always, we started creating our media strategy by first developing a thorough understanding of our audience. Hpnotiq’s target audiences are (1) multicultural millennials that are new to the brand and (2) heritage consumers that are familiar with the brand. These are men and women between the ages of 21-49. Individuals are interested in hip hop, fashion, sports, and entertainment. They often enjoy Hpnotiq in a cocktail at home or a favorite bar.
Up until 2023, our strategy with Hpnotiq focused on promoting and amplifying the brand’s content on social media to reach both millennial and heritage consumer audiences. The Hpnotiq brand team would develop their own creative tentpole activations, such a mixtape campaign, an NFT campaign, and even a collaboration with Fat Joe, who served as their creative director in a buzzworthy video. At (amp), we would then amplify these activations on social channels using persona-based targeting and psychographic research to craft tailored ads for Instagram, Facebook, and X, continually monitoring and optimizing in real-time for maximum engagement. This approach proved successful, significantly increasing engagement rates and improving brand visibility.
Shift in strategy and alignment with the NBA playoffs
However, during our 2022 planning phase, the brand team decided to align Hypnotic with pre-existing buzzworthy moments, rather than continuing to create these original moments from scratch. At (amp), we conducted research revealing that audiences streaming NBA content were more likely to be Hpnotiq consumers—a key insight that would drive a significant shift in our approach.
What we found was that, compared to the average 21-49-year-old in the U.S., NBA fans who had streamed sports content in the last 30 days were more likely to be Hpnotiq consumers. Knowing that the NBA resonated with our audience, we developed a media strategy designed to increase brand awareness with new consumers and maintain relevancy among current consumers by aligning Hpnotiq with one of the most iconic sports moments of the year: the NBA Playoffs.
Leveraging iconic voices to drive awareness
Knowing that 64% of sports fans listen to sports talk radio via AM/FM, streaming, or TV, we decided to align Hpnotiq with ESPN and some of the most iconic voices in sports and professional basketball. Our connection with ESPN included host- and live-read ads on the network’s most popular podcasts, as well as targeted pre-roll and mid-roll audio to increase reach, frequency, and overall campaign efficiency.
We kept the Hpnotiq brand top-of-mind among fans during the NBA Playoffs by supporting the daily conversation and highlight reels being discussed and shared by their favorite ESPN hosts: Vince Carter, Brian Windhorst, Domonique Foxworth, Adrian Wojnarowski, and more. This included sponsorship and brand integration with top podcasts such as The VC Show, Bomani Jones: The Right Time, Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective, The Domonique Foxworth Show, (debatable), and The Woj Pod.
Together, the Hpnotiq pre-roll and mid-roll host reads on these podcasts, as well as the pre-recorded audio spot targeted to basketball fans across the ESPN Podcast Network delivered 116% of the campaign’s impressions at 15.1 million. Making up 63% of the campaign’s total impressions, the pre-recorded audio spot targeted to basketball fans across the ESPN Podcast Network was the largest contributor to efficiently scaling the campaign. Meanwhile, the host-read ads supported the Hpnotiq brand with some of ESPN’s most influential voices and delivered more than 5.5M total impressions.
We also worked with iHeartMedia, which owns the NBA Podcast Network, to create audio spots and further solidify Hpnotiq’s alignment with the NBA playoffs. Our Hpno + Tequila audio spot, targeted to sports fans and sneakerheads across the iHeartPodcast Network, delivered 100.8% of impressions at 6.3 million, with an average CPM 12.1% lower than the average contracted rate. Unsurprisingly, the majority of impressions were delivered on mobile devices, including phones and tablets. Roughly 5% of impressions were served on Connected TVs, which aligns with an industry trend of more listeners tuning into their favorite podcasts via TV and more podcasts producing video streaming options in addition to audio.
Leveraging social to drive engagement and create visual connections
At the same time, we supported Hpnotiq’s social presence across Instagram, X (Formerly Twitter), and Facebook by amplifying the brand’s owned social content to drive engagement and relevance with content that resonated with sports fans during the NBA Playoffs. To increase the efficiency of our social campaign, we leveraged X’s event and conversation targeting to reach users engaging with NBA Playoffs content in real time. We also utilized Meta’s interest targeting to reach users that have an interest in professional basketball and ESPN, and its location targeting to include cities of the teams in the 2024 playoffs.
Hpnotiq’s sponsorship of The Hoop Collective podcast included branded integration with the show’s “Best of” clips that it shares to ESPN’s Instagram Reels. These Hpnotiq-branded clips made up more than 84% of the campaign’s video views at a 33.33% view rate, and nearly 96% of engagements at a 4.7% engagement rate. The clip with the most views and engagement was shared on May 21st, when Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps discussed who was the best player in the western conference finals between the Mavs and Timberwolves. While the overall reach of the Reels and Shorts did not quite reach the impressive numbers of the audio spots, this tactic was crucial to visually connect Hpnotiq with ESPN for potential consumers.
By aligning Hpnotiq with the buzz of the NBA Playoffs and leveraging placements with ESPN and iHeartMedia, we were able to deliver more than 22 million impressions in the brand’s top markets, effectively creating new connections with Hpnotiq among basketball fans and reinforcing its relevance among new and existing consumers. Now that’s what we call a slam dunk.
The Results | ESPN’s Instagram
Million
Impressions
Engagement Rate
View Rate
Market Less. Matter More.
Company
Support
Offices
The Leap Group Advantage
When you partner with us you get access to specialized experts across the entire network.