VHP commissioned markettiers4dc to deliver a live and interactive online whisky tasting show direct from New York City on behalf of the Beam drinks group. This is the 6th year that markettiers4dc have produced and delivered the Laphroaig Live shows online, having previously broadcast live from Vinopolis in London (the first event of its kind), Islay in Scotland, Kentucky in the USA, Jerez in Spain and Nuremberg in Germany
The venue for the event was a reclaimed Hudson River Barge moored in Brooklyn Harbour, which, at over 99 years old, has seen cargo come and go into New York for almost a century, and was even used to transport Laphroaig in the prohibition era, when it was passed off as a medicine. However, the remoteness of the location presented a logistical challenge for broadcasting; the barge, which had been decimated by Hurricane Sandy, had no electricity and so markettiers4dc shipped in a generator to power the live multi camera TV production in front of an invited audience.
Laphroaig Live featured a panel of four experts who commented throughout the whisky tasting; Laphroaig Distillery Manager, John Campbell, Bourbon Ambassador Adam Harris, the renowned Michael J. Neff, Mixologist and Founder of Ward III and cocktail and spirit enthusiast Kevin Sintumuang, web editor of GQ.
markettiers4dc employed the latest satellite technology to film, edit, encode and then stream the show live online to a series of high reaching websites and blogs. The show was promoted by VHP with an email update campaign to over half a million 'Friends of Laphroaig' while markettiers4dc placed the content on targeted websites, blogs and social media such as NY Loves Whisky, Booze and Dancing, Planet Whiskies, Whisky Wire and Distant Thunder Whisky Club. The live show created lots of interaction on social media as well as hundreds of questions and comments being submitted to the panel.
Watch the on-demand version of the live show below.