Ashley Park Helps Deep Eddy Vodka Launch a Fake Digital Conference for Playing Hooky

Deep Eddy Vodka - one of the fastest growing premium spirits in the US - will host the first-ever V.O.D.K.A. Conference on August 25th. It’s a fake, online conference designed for workers who are craving time off for fun experiences. 

The V.O.D.K.A. Conference (an acronym for Virtually Optimised Developmental Knowledge Assembly) will block your calendar so you can go have fun with your friends instead.  The calendar block appears to be a legitimate business conference, but it's really an excuse to play hooky - all under the guise of learning and growing your professional skills.  

Sign up here - vodkaconference.org - to get the calendar block.

Tony Award-winning actor Ashley Park, star of the raunchy new comedy Joy Ride and Emily in Paris, has been tapped by Deep Eddy Vodka to help launch the pretend conference and encourage workers to get out and do something fun.

The campaign, created in collaboration with independent agency McGarrah Jessee (McJ) and with post-production by Cut+Run, launches with a promo spot starring Ashley. Set in a drab corporate office, Ashley explains, with a wink, how this 'unquantifiably important conference' (not really) will equip you with the essential knowledge for job success with a full day of seminars where you’ll learn 'leadership, strategy, and optimisation.' 

The integrated campaign launches with three spots, including a :30, :15, :06, which will run on social (organic, paid, and Ashley Park’s social channels), YouTube, and other paid online video placements where Deep Eddy’s 'fun-loving' audience spends time.

Tim Roan, chief creative officer, McGarrah Jessee said, “The V.O.D.K.A. Conference is a lovely example of a brand using the internet for how the internet should be used. Finding playful ways to unite and support people by hacking digital experiences. As a brand that stands for fun, Deep Eddy has a unique ability to take something serious and flip it on its head, turning it into something legitimately fun and useful.” 

Hannah Venhoff, VP, Deep Eddy Vodka said, "Ashley Park is the epitome of fun. She’s always real and authentically herself, which makes her the perfect star to help Deep Eddy Vodka launch the V.O.D.K.A. Conference under our new brand platform, ‘Vodka is for Fun.’ In our work from home era, it’s becoming harder than ever for people to truly log off and have a good time off the clock. So our goal is to put a spin on corporate culture in a way that creates a grand excuse for as many people as possible to take the day off and, hopefully, go have a Deep Eddy Vodka cocktail with their friends.”

In addition to the Ashley spot and calendar block, Deep Eddy also plans to equip attendees with a livestream of faux-motivational videos and shareable conference takeaways designed to convince any sceptical bosses. In US cities including Austin and New York City, Deep Eddy will host in-person activations, where 'cube-cutters' can pick up fake conference swag, like lanyards and photos, to even further legitimise their day of hooky. 

The activation is Deep Eddy’s first initiative under its new brand platform, 'Vodka is for Fun,' which is all about reminding the world of the greatness of vodka; it’s the spirit that gets along with everyone. What else can turn the juice of a tomato into instant good times, or make a martini the non-elderly will desire? Alone among the spirits, vodka stands for what all adults of drinking age really need out of a drink or two: an easy-going, ever-versatile, all-around good time. Bourbon is for thinking. Scotch is for business. Tequila is for trouble. But vodka? Vodka is for fun.