World Class Canada

01. Marketing Challenge

Every year, World Class Canada hosts an industry-leading competition which attracts the finest bartenders from across the country to compete for the title of Canada’s best. The winner of the competition goes on to represent Canada at the global World Class competition, where they can cement their status on a universal stage. With the pandemic still at large in Spring 2021, VIBRANT was tasked with helping Diageo execute this prestigious event while navigating through restrictions, which limited on-site staff and resulted in no live audiences. In addition to making sure everything went safely and smoothly, VIBRANT needed to give the competition an atmosphere that was worthy of the occasion.

02. Solution

Due to the nature of the competition, the option of having contestants compete virtually from their homes just was not in the cards – they needed to be there in the flesh. The challenges were live streamed, creating a hybrid competition that replicated the experience of performing for an audience.

Our team exercised our resourcefulness and coordinated the travel logistics for every one of the event’s contestants and judges. This included everything from flights, private transportation, accommodations and rapid COVID testing. With so many working parts in our operation, we needed to ensure that communication between contestants remained under our control. In addition to managing the people and personalities of World Class Canada, VIBRANT also supplied a number of vital assets that were used in live streamed segments with World Class bartenders. Some of these included brand bars for Bulleit Bourbon, Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, and Don Julio, where previous winners filmed special ‘how to make’ cocktail sessions which showcased each respective brand.

03. Results

Despite the external obstacles our team had to work around, in the end our efforts paid off as World Class Canada 2021 went down seamlessly. Even under the cloud of a pandemic, we were able to shine and create a 3-day hybrid experience that rivaled previous years. Contestants demonstrated their skills live in front of the six judges and over 5,500 consumers tuned in from home through Facebook Live. The hurdles posed from COVID-19 were no match for our expertise!