Johnnie Walker have run a number of successful marketing campaigns in the past few years in order to promote a more responsible drinking behaviour with its consumer audience.

The campaigns have up until recently mostly been focused around TV and Internet ads, with great success and popularity, at least here in Greece (Greece rank pretty highly in scotch whiskey consumption among European countries, by the way).

Johnnie Walker has now turned to mobile marketing, by choosing to run a proximity marketing campaign in Athens this spring (2009). Here's more from the press release:

For a period of three months from the 20^th of March until the 3^rd of May, in the spring of 2009 a campaign to inform citizens about the hazards of drink-driving is taking place in various public locations all around Athens, Greece. The campaign is run by Johnnie Walker, the world-famous brand of scotch whisky, in order to promote responsible drinking.

The campaign takes place on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, in squares and public areas in Kolonaki, Psiri, Gazi and Pagrati. During the evening and early night hours, passers-by are encouraged to participate in the event and opt-in to drive their friends, participate in contests to win special prizes and download for free via Bluetooth a mobile catalog (screenshot on the right) with all the public transit information available in Athens at night.

This is another great example of a proximity marketing campaign, as it focuses mainly on providing the consumers with something of value to them (the mass transport schedules), while also promoting the brand itself.

I must say I downloaded the mobile application on my mobile phone (from the link in the article) and was pretty impressed with the result. I'm definitely keeping it as an aid in my moving around Athens!

I look forward to finding more information about this bluetooth marketing campaign from Bluevibe (the interview I promised you with Mr. Antoniadis in the Athens International Airport article is scheduled for this week), in terms of numbers and statistics and how successful the campaign has been.