Yellowstone® Bourbon Sets Sights on Expanding Audience with New Advertising Campaign

'Always keep the park within reach' campaign expands upon Yellowstone Bourbon's 'For All' brand positioning, while leveraging the bond between bourbon and park

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 4, 2023 -- Yellowstone Bourbon – the 151-year-old brand now produced at Lebanon, Kentucky-based Limestone Branch Distillery, a stop on the world-famous Kentucky Bourbon Trail® craft tour – announced it has rolled out three new ads, along with a new ad-buy strategy to expand its reach. The new ads, which began airing Oct. 1, follow the theme: "Always keep the park within reach."

"Since its inception in 1872, Yellowstone Bourbon has shared a connection with America's first national park, and we've sought to highlight that through our brand story," said Yellowstone Bourbon Brand Manager Kelly Panzitta. "As we look to the future of the Yellowstone brand, our focus is on leveraging the bond between our bourbon and the park it was named after."

Yellowstone Bourbon tapped St. Louis-based Rodgers Townsend to create the new spots. The agency most recently worked with the brand to create the "Yellowstone – For All" campaign, of which the current advertising theme is an extension. The new ads illustrate by choosing Yellowstone – at the bar or at home – the spirit of the park is never more than a pour away. The series of new ads was designed to appeal to the brand's loyal customers, as well as to attract its emerging female audience and younger consumers 21 and older.

The brand team called on media buying agency Ansira to help Yellowstone Bourbon reach a broader audience for the remainder of 2023 and into 2024. Among the changes, Yellowstone has finalized an ad buy with CBS Sports to appear during NFL broadcasts this fall for the first time ever across several platforms. The spot began airing on Oct. 1 on digital, streaming and linear TV. Following is a summary of the schedule:

NFL linear programming on CBS Sports

• :30 spot in the following NFL games
  • Sunday, Oct. 29, at 1 PM: NY Jets v. NY Giants, New England v. Miami, Jacksonville v. Pittsburgh, Atlanta v. Tennessee
  • Sunday, Nov. 26, at 1PM: Pittsburgh v. Cincinnati, Jacksonville v. Houston, Tampa Bay v. Indianapolis
  • Sunday, Dec. 10^, at 1PM: Houston v. NY Jets, Indianapolis v. Cincinnati, Jacksonville v. Cleveland, Tampa Bay v. Atlanta

CBS Sports Live Streaming

• NFL in game and CBS Sports HQ live stream video (Oct. 1 – Dec. 31)

"We are excited to invest in sports to broaden our audience and create greater awareness for the Yellowstone brand. With the NFL's historical strength reaching the male audience and its growing popularity among women, it was a logical choice," added Panzitta. "Moving our overall focus to leverage live sporting events has the potential to yield us up to 70 million impressions – a 282% increase resulting from shifting to the new sports-focused plan. We're excited to partner with CBS to tell Yellowstone's story to more consumers."

Both the whiskey category and the NFL have experienced steady growth in popularity among women. According to Mintel's Dark Spirits US, 2022 research, the share of women aged 35 to 54 who drink dark spirits increased from 19% in 2019 to 28% in 2022. And according to a February 24, 2023, Sponsorpulse article by Jessa Morris, 53% of American females engage with the NFL. This figure is supported by a 2021 SSRS Sports poll – referenced in a Nov. 18, 2022, USA TODAY article – that revealed women and girls made up 46% of the NFL fanbase (ages 8-plus) in the U.S., amounting to 84 million female fans.

The new ads can be viewed and downloaded here.

About Yellowstone Bourbon

Founded by pioneer distiller Joseph Bernard Dant, Yellowstone Bourbon was named for our country's very first national park in 1872. In 2011, seventh-generation Master Distiller Steve Beam – a descendant of both the Dant and Beam distilling families – founded Lebanon, Kentucky-based Limestone Branch Distillery and resurrected the Yellowstone brand with the creation of Yellowstone Select Bourbon. Since then, Yellowstone has been one of the fastest-growing American Whiskey brands in the industry. Today, the Yellowstone family of brands includes Yellowstone Select, Yellowstone Limited Edition and Yellowstone American Single Malt Whiskey. For more information on the Yellowstone brand, visit http://www.yellowstonebourbon.com/ or https://www.instagram.com/yellowstonebourbon/.