Sampling America's Neighbourhood Flavours with Vox Creative and Jack Daniel's

Vox Creative recently teamed up with Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey and media agency Spark Foundry to launch a new branded content campaign celebrating the many flavours of America's neighbourhoods. 

The campaign consists of a six-part video series that went live across Vox Media's editorial networks (Curbed, Eater, SB Nation, Vox, Polygon, and Racked), and shines a spotlight on the vibrant people and places that make up these cultural hubs.

Vox Creative's Cristina Cerullo and A.J. Gutierrez reveal what went into the launch of 'Neighborhood Flavor' below...

Q> What was the brief from Jack Daniel's?

A> The brief was to create a six-part documentary series that explores six different cities across the country to uncover the unique, sometimes unexpected communities within them. The idea is to celebrate neighbourhoods and the people that define them - much like Jack Daniel’s celebrates being from a very small town in Tennessee. Jack Daniel's has produced this series in years past with other partners, and this is the first year they collaborated with Vox Media and Spark Foundry to up-level the creative and give it a fresh new spin, while still maintaining the spirit of the concept.

Q> Can you tell us a bit about the creative concept?

A> We thought a unique take would be to visit these places and meet these people through the eyes of a street photographer. Photographers are naturally curious and always have a camera on them. This was a great way to give our series a purpose. For our narratives, we wanted to find specific neighbourhood stories that felt a bit unexpected — a budding fashion scene in the South Bronx or geek culture in Atlanta.

Q> Talk about bringing this concept to life - what did you do? What was especially cool about these deliverables, and what challenges did you face?

A> We knew we wanted these to have a unique style and feel. One way we did this was incorporating the photos taken by our photographer/host to add an almost stop motion-like effect to some of the scenes. Sometimes, a single still image says more about a travel experience than any collection of moving images could. Our biggest challenge was adapting our stories and production approaches once we landed in each city. In a perfect world, we would spend more time in each place before we picked up a camera, but given our timeline, we had to work quickly. We had a good idea of what we were going to shoot, but you never really know everything until you’re actually in the location and meeting the people. 

Q> What, in your mind, does this work do for its audiences?

A> I think this work shows audiences that there’s more to these cities than one would think. We did our best to highlight interesting people and cultures that you wouldn’t normally think of when profiling these places. 

Q> The campaign is across multiple Vox Media networks. Tell us which ones, and why this make sense for the Neighborhood Flavor campaign.

A> We came up with a programming strategy to ensure each of the stories appeals to a specific Vox Media network. The theme of 'neighbourhood' and connecting with people in different places has broad appeal. But rather than tell broad stories that could carry across all of our networks at large, we wanted the individual topics, and the specificity of those topics that we explored, to align with passion points across Curbed, Eater, SB Nation, Vox, Polygon, and Racked. This allowed us to keep the stories diverse and ensure that each one carried something specific the audience would want to engage with. 

Q> How do you feel this branded content program represents what the Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey Brand is all about?

A> It's all about celebrating neighbourhoods and being proud of where you’re from. Each of these stories is centred around celebrating a city and/or neighbourhood that reflects that same positivity and pride that Jack Honey has about its Lynchburg roots. We celebrated the pride in these neighbourhoods in true Jack Honey fashion, by meeting and spending time with new friends. Ethan had authentic conversations and experiences which allowed us to uncover stories beneath the surface and truly spotlight something unique in each neighbourhood.

Q> What do you hope is the takeaway for the audience?

A> I hope the takeaway is a newfound curiosity for these cities, and perhaps, a new way of looking at places that sometimes carry longstanding stereotypes. I also hope they come away with a sense of pride in where they are from.

Cristina Cerullo is ECD and A.J. Gutierrez is senior producer at Vox Creative