For West Virginia football fans, the Blue Lot is more than a parking lot. It is a tradition, a reunion, a ritual and, for many, the unofficial kickoff to game day. Poke The Bear is bringing that feeling to the liquor aisle with its first campaign for Tailgate Spirits and Blue Lot Bourbon.
What if you could bottle the feeling of a college football Saturday?
That is 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.
For West Virginia fans, the Blue Lot is no ordinary parking lot. It is the pregame, the reunion, the party and a tradition passed down through generations. While Ole Miss has The Grove, Alabama has The Quad and Texas has Bevo Boulevard, West Virginia fans will happily argue that the Blue Lot deserves its own place at the top of the college football tailgate hierarchy.
Bill Milkereit, Founder / Writer at Poke The Bear shared, “We never forget that “Fan” is short for “fanatic”. Blue Lot Bourbon is the perfect name to poke at West Virginia’s most avid football followers. We didn’t have to inform our clients they weren’t just selling liquid. Any opportunity to help fan those flames, we are all over it.”
So Poke The Bear tapped into that deep rooted fan culture with a campaign built around that simple idea: “World’s Greatest Tailgate, Bottled.”
Rather than simply selling bourbon, the campaign sells the experience of being in the Blue Lot.
And that experience shows up in some decidedly irreverent copy, 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.
