What if you could bottle the feeling of a college football Saturday?
That’s the idea behind Poke The Bear’s first campaign for Tailgate Spirits™, the West Virginia spirits company behind Blue Lot Bourbon, a new bourbon inspired by the legendary Blue Lot in Morgantown, where Mountaineer game day begins.
Ole Miss has The Grove. Alabama has The Quad. Texas has Bevo Boulevard. But they’re all fighting for 2nd place when it comes to wild and raucous pre-game traditions.
For West Virginia fans, the Blue Lot is no ordinary parking lot. It’s the pregame, the reunion, the ritual, the wildest party of the year and a tradition passed down through generations. Poke The Bear’s campaign taps into that deep-rooted culture to sell something bigger than the bourbon: the experience of being in the Blue Lot.
Built around the idea “World’s Greatest Tailgate, Bottled,” the campaign brings the spirit of Morgantown to life through irreverent lines and executions across West Virginia liquor stores, including:
- “Take Me Home, West Virginia.”
- “Don’t Wait for the Tailgate to Tailgate.”
- “Finished in West Virginia. Kinda like Miami in ’93.”
- “Where 7 Home Dates Are Sprinkled Around 358 Days of Pre-Gaming.”
The campaign breaks the rules of in-store with point-of-sale, posters, social and on-premise installations made of aluminum parking-lot-style signage. All designed to bring fans a little closer to the Blue Lot itself, right in the liquor aisle.
And it’s a natural fit for Poke The Bear, whose expertise is rooted in the culture, language and rituals surrounding sports and fan culture. From its original authorship of SEC’s iconic “It Just Means More” campaign to its work with Johnsonville, the agency has a track record of finding the cultural truths that speak real talk to real fans, turning them into creative platforms that last. The agency, founded by sports fanatics themselves, believes true, hardcore fans can smell marketing from outsiders a mile away. But they’ll welcome fellow true fans (and brands) under their pop-up canopy immediately and hope they stay awhile.
The result: a campaign that doesn’t just sell bourbon. It sells a place, a ritual and a feeling. World’s Greatest Tailgate, Bottled.
