Hendrick’s Gin awakens consumers in recently launched immersive live experience via Yakusan

Hendrick’s Gin has a reputation for bringing the “quirky” and “unusual” to life, but ‘The Awakening’, held at Commune from June 2 to 4 via Yakusan, elevated the brand to whole new level with media, influencers and consumers coming away truly “awakened”.

With deliberate mystery surrounding the weekend long event, attendees anticipated they were going to experience something unique and unusual but were taken by surprise with this one-of-a-kind experience. Following opening night and through word of mouth, the experience sold out in record time, with consumers scrambling to be a part of this extraordinary immersive live experience.

Participants embarked on an hour-long interactive and theatrical journey of the body and the mind, as their own human instincts, emotions and reactions became the subject. Self-guided within groups of 20 through a series of unexpected scenarios, intricately themed rooms, carnivalesque theatrical performances and superbly crafted Hendrick’s drinks, participants were integrated into the script and pushed outside their comfort zones.

With an unprecedented amount of positive feedback, strong media attendance, initial reach of 5.7m across targeted media, over 1,000 ecstatic consumers and immeasurable WOM, Yakusan has certainly raised the bar on what interactive brand experience should deliver for both the brand and the consumer.

Yakusan Brand Experience Group, was responsible for the creative and concept development, production, communication and content strategy, media and partnership with Siren Theatre Co. and PR was managed by Agent 99.

Yakusan have been partners with Hendrick’s Gin since it first launched in Australia 10 years ago, creating and producing its brand strategy, brand experiences and rich content.

Says Gilles Merry, founder and MD, Yakusan: “The Awakening is a fantastic example of client and agency working closely together to achieve strong and relevant local creative, ideation, production and content… to create truly compelling experiences for their audiences. Strategy, creativity and craftsmanship is at the core of what we do, and we are very grateful to our client, team and collaborators, who all worked very hard to bring this incredible experience to life.”