Johnnie Walker launched a generative AI experience at its Edinburgh venue that lets customers co-design personalized whisky bottle labels by answering simple questions that influence the artwork's colors, locations, and styles.
- Johnnie Walker Blue Label customers at Edinburgh's Prince Street venue could use generative AI to create one-of-a-kind custom labels inspired by Scottish artist Scott Naismith
- The experience, part of Project Halo, allowed visitors to answer three questions that influenced key design themes, with labels printed in minutes
- Diageo partnered with industry leaders including Amazon AWS, design agency Phantom, and others to build the AI platform using ethical, artist-protecting technology
- The pilot program reflects growing consumer demand for personalization and unique experiences that signal individuality and status
- Diageo's new Breakthrough Innovation team launched Project Halo as the first pilot in a wider platform for AI-enabled co-creation across brands
Diageo brand Johnnie Walker is inviting visitors to its Edinburgh, Scotland Prince Street venue to participate in a generative AI-powered experience that lets them co-design a personalized bottle of top-shelf Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky. The artwork draws from aesthetics imagined by popular Sottish landscape artist Scott Naismith. Only available at the Edinburgh venue, the experience ran through the end of August this year.
Visitors were prompted to answer three simple questions that influenced key themes in Naismith’s work, ultimately impacting their bottle design. The prompts generated various colors, locations, artistic styles, and times of day, resulting in an entirely unique, batch-size-one label that was printed in minutes.
The event was part of what’s called Project Halo, an undertaking under the umbrella of Diageo’s new Breakthrough Innovation team, a subsidiary launched in January of its existing Innovation function. More specifically, Project Halo is meant to let brands and consumers co-create personalized label designs/product artwork. The generative AI tech empowers consumers to co-create designs on Diageo products in a way that is bespoke to them, advancing the mass customization and personalization trend in packaging and labeling.
“This is the first pilot in a wider platform that the Breakthrough Innovation team is exploring, looking at how we can use AI responsibly to enable co-collaboration between fans and artists," says Will Harvey, senior global innovation manager, Diageo. "Demand for personalization shows no signs of slowing down, so we’re delighted to offer the chance to create one-of-a-kind AI-enabled designs with Scott. With Johnnie Walker Princes Street’s previous experience of using AI to enhance customer experiences, it’s the perfect place for us to launch this innovative offer to the world.”
The company says this launch comes as consumers increasingly search for unique experiences and products that signal belonging, status, and personality, whether it’s for themselves or others. Consumers, it says, are going beyond the most up-to-date cultural movements, seeking things that feel entirely original, with personalization now a necessity. Diageo’s Breakthrough Innovation team says it’s committed to actively looking for partners to collaborate with to test and learn Breakthrough ideas. Project Halo continues this commitment, Diageo says, by partnering with industry-leading experts including design agency Phantom, Amazon AWS, Hybrid Software, GMG, and Roland DG. For example, Diageo has leveraged the latest developments in generative AI through Amazon’s Titan bedrock model, which ensures the ethical protection of artist work whilst allowing consumers to co-create.
“Since opening, Johnnie Walker Princes Street has striven to become a leader in using the power of AI to personalize guests’ experiences. Johnnie Walker x Scott Naismith is an exciting new step in our commitment to offering those with various tastes and interests something completely different from what’s available in the whisky experience market. This partnership is a true one-of-a-kind, and we can’t wait to see the designs our guests will print on their bottles,” adds Rob Maxwell, head of Johnnie Walker Princes Street.
The Johnnie Walker x Scott Naismith experience will be available for a until the end of August, and guests will be able to access it with every purchase of Johnnie Walker Blue Label in the venue’s retail store during that time. The bottle design element can be complemented at no extra charge by a bookable expert-led tasting of Johnnie Walker Blue Label, as well as a guided tasting of the incredibly special limited edition Johnnie Walker Blue Label ‘Elusive Umami’, in the rooftop Explorers’ Bothy bar. PW
