LONDON – Wine and spirits supplier Irish Distillers has appointed Manifest to develop creative campaigns for its Jameson Black Barrel whiskey brand.

The agency’s initial brief is to develop a UK campaign covering experiential, earned media and digital content activity this summer around the brand’s ‘Touched by Fire’ strapline.

Irish Distillers senior global brand manager Biola Wyrwas said: “It is time to build education and connection with the brand with our Jameson fans in the UK. Over the lockdown period we saw our audience trading up to Jameson Black Barrel and now, post-Covid, we want to sustain that growth – the plan from Manifest gave a clear path to achieve that.”

Manifest UK director Tom Winterton added: “This was actually our second pitch to Jameson in 2022. We missed out on the first brief but, having seen what a collaborative, positive team we’d be working with, it made us even more determined to bag the win for this Black Barrel opportunity.

“The work is stuffed with creative opportunity and gives us a chance to show how a response embedded in culture can drive tangible business results for the Black Barrel brand. Delivering on this is going to be so much fun for the team – whisky, food, music, it’s got all the ingredients to make for a great project.”

Manifest recently launched its sixth office, with partner Julian Obubo overseeing operations in Los Angeles; its other studios are based in London, Manchester, Stockholm, Melbourne and New York. The agency’s client roster includes Gousto, Logitech, Tommee Tippee, Dettol, Popeyes and Chivas Brothers.