Muskoka Brewery and the May long weekend have one thing in common: both are commonly associated with beer.

In an effort to drive awareness and sales for its Muskoka Spirits division – specifically its Legendary Oddity Gin brand – Muskoka Brewery decided to take a different approach to its media buy as well.

Pairing with The Globe and Mail‘s Globe Content Studio, Muskoka created editorial and social content to drive people into stores. Aletta Brandle, social media strategist with the Globe Content Studio, told MiC the strategy was centered around speaking to more lifestyle-conscious millennials.

“They wanted to engage the traditional beer demographic, but also a younger demographic within gin drinkers – people who typically go for Hendrick’s or similar gins,” she said. “While it’s a broad age range overall from 20 to 50, this specifically targeted millennials.”

She said gin is unique because unlike a spirit such as whiskey or vodka, gin drinkers tend to want recipes that they can mix the gins into, especially around the spring and summer months. Pairing with Canadian influencer Diala Canelo, who is known for her culinary content and boasts more than 115,000 followers on Instagram, Oddity Gin appeared in visual content on Canelo’s various social channels. Canelo also penned a sponsored piece for The Globe on cocktail recipes featuring Oddity.

The social content was also targeted geographically. Content was promoted to users within a certain radius of every LCBO location carrying the gin. It went live the just before the long weekend and will continue in market for three more weeks.

The campaign was also a first for The Globe, a legacy brand, in terms of pairing with a socially native influencer.

Muskoka worked with True Media on the buy.