Scottish whisky distiller, William Grant and Sons, plans to try an innovative digital-first approach to engaging with industry experts and customers by hosting a hackadram event in London. The family-owned firm, which distills world leading brands such as Glenfiddich and The Balvenie, is adopting a ‘hackday’ format, usually favoured by silicon valley software developers.

Hackdays or hackathons are ‘sprint-like’ events, taking place over 24 or 48 hours, with a specific focus, that facilitate collaboration between experts with the goal of solving a problem or creating something new. Traditionally, hackdays are associated with brands such as Facebook and Google, not whisky.

Hackadram seeks to engage and harness the creativity of innovators from a wide variety of fields such as tech, retail and marketing and to get their input on how best to shape the future of the brand. The event’s website describes it as “a unique opportunity to define the future of spirits around the world.”

What Happens at Hackadram?

With the support of specialists, participants will face four challenges that they are tasked with solving:

• The drinking experience
• The future of e-commerce
• How technology can improve customer experience in a retail environment
• How to drive deeper bartender engagement

Ideas generated by hackadram, that are judged to meet the challenge requirement, could potentially be commissioned by William Grant and Sons. However, the website adds the caveat that contributors will retain all intellectual property rights.

The judges, who are described as best of tech, innovation and drinks industry, include Ryan Chetiyawardana global bartender & innovator of the year, entrepreneur Simon Devonshire OBE and Benjamin Southworth a start-up expert.

Engaging the Next Generation

William Grant and Sons directly attribute their recent success to capturing the new generation of whisky drinkers with annual sales reaching £1 billion. Events like hackadram are evidently an attempt by the brand to capitalise on this success and to engage this new wave of customer.

Simon Hunt, William Grant & Sons chief executive, told DIGIT: “The consistent investment in our brands, in markets and in future proofing our operational infrastructure, provides a solid platform to continue our growth.”

Scottish Food and Drink Industry

It is heartening to see a traditional industry such as whisky take such a progressive approach to their strategic planning and customer engagement. Scotland’s national drink makes up 73% of total Scottish food and drink exports with 39 bottles exported every second, so it is important this industry continues to flourish.

The UK’s food and drink industry contributes £28.2bn to the economy,  in 2016 the total of UK food and drink export figures were worth more than £20bn, due to the impressive nature of these figures it is good to see brands are stepping up their digital game.

Scotland’s food and drink industry is an equally vital part of the Scottish economy with an annual turnover of £14bn. As disruptive technology continues to gather pace it will become impossible for brands to ignore digital opportunities such as hackadram if they wish to remain competitive and thrive in a modern market.