Johnnie Walker—known for its iconic “Keep Walking” tagline—has taken a foothold in branded TV content as it looks to more deeply connect with diverse audiences. The Diageo-owned Scotch whisky brand is extending those efforts with a new deal with AMC Networks, where Johnnie Walker will sponsor a four-part travel series hosted by “Fear the Walking Dead” star Colman Domingo.  

Johnnie Walker’s sponsorship of “You Are Here” is part of its First Strides program, a commitment the brand made in 2022 to invest in diverse creators and programming. While Domingo holds appeal for the “Walking Dead” fandom, the series is different from some of AMC’s other branded content spinoffs in that it is a more introspective journey with the actor and his experiences and beliefs.

The series premiere is timed with the Juneteenth holiday, and Domingo will also participate in Johnnie Walker’s partnership with Blacktag, a streaming service featuring content from Black artists. Domingo will mentor the upcoming class of grant recipients funded by Johnnie Walker to produce content for Blacktag.

In each 20-minute episode, Domingo will travel to a city that holds significance to his past and have conversations with friends, family and fellow creatives, including “Fear the Walking Dead” co-star Kim Dickens. The first two episodes premiere June 19 at 7 p.m. ET on AMC with the second two episodes following on June 30. The season will crossover to AMC’s other channels Sundance TV, IFC and WE TV the same day, and be available to stream on AMC+ as well as AMC’s FAST channels on Aug. 8.

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As the ad industry seeks to invest dollars more equitably into diverse markets, branded content has risen to the top as an impactful way to authentically connect with diverse audiences. During upfront pitches last month, major media companies including Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery highlighted branded content as part of their DE&I strategies.

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Branded content has become a bigger part of marketing budgets as brands look to immerse themselves with specific audiences or fandoms. And media companies have been beefing up their branded content offerings as they seek ways to differentiate themselves from growing competition in digital video. Recently, advertisers including Mars Wrigley, Coca-Cola and Constellation Brands have taken up branded content that sits naturally among streaming content as a way to reach cord-cutters. 

Diageo has been investing in branded content with AMC since the launch of the network group’s branded content studio, The Content Room, in 2020, said Kim Granito, head of marketing at AMC. Diageo has featured 11 different brands across three seasons of “Bottomless Brunch at Colman’s,” in which Domingo interviewed celebrity guests while crafting a cocktail.

Branded content is “about people identifying with creators, people identifying with storylines and fans who’ve become obsessed with characters,” said Sophie Kelly, senior VP of North American whiskeys portfolio and Baileys at Diageo. “Our brands, drinks brands, are totally dependent on how they show up and turn up in culture and the company they keep in culture.”

When audiences upped their time watching TV during the pandemic, “that forced some of us back to more linear [TV] media,” said Kelly. But the COVID years also reminded the executive of the importance of niche audiences. 

“There’s a massive place for everybody to reevaluate the importance of going deep, and what it means to be surround sound and relevant in an area that your consumer is very passionate about,” said Kelly, explaining it as the “difference between a national NFL ad and a program that talks to the Cowboys fan.”

For TV networks, branded content could serve as a prime differentiator as competition ramps up in the video media space, with newer entrants such as YouTube, TikTok and Netflix vying for the same ad dollars. One media buyer said notable pushes in upfront conversations from the likes of Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal on their vast rosters of legacy intellectual property “is where they’re going to shine versus the distributors like Roku or even Netflix—a lot of their inventory is really distributing other people's content.”

Diageo’s Kelly still points out the value of balancing branded content with more traditional advertising, particularly as capabilities in advanced audiences and targeted creative delivery grow—but with a needed shift in emphasis. Boosting a brand’s story and the growing power of fandom, traditional advertising could be informed by the branded content built by the brand to further expand the value of those partnerships.

“Where I think we get it wrong, when we get caught up looking at ratios of spend—shift that to thinking about if we were to create content out of all the experiences we did, and then redeploy that content to a broader audience,” said Kelly. “We will have a far more effective plan.”

Recently, Johnnie Walker activated around the 2023 Oscars by constructing a red carpet made of vignettes representing female filmmakers, many of whom had been snubbed in the show’s nominations. However, the brand refrained from advertising in the official broadcast on ABC, instead opting to focus on the mission-oriented experience “that begets content and inspires people to get involved” rather than traditional advertising, Kelly told Ad Age at the time.

Similarly, AMC’s Granito said the value of combining targeted advertising alongside branded content is “to be everywhere that show’s audience is.”

“You Are Here” and other branded series “are the cherry on top creative extensions for those original series,” said Granito. “So it makes a whole lot of sense to come on for the whole creative story versus just one piece of it.”

“I believe that people love brands that connect with their values. They love brands that give them utility, that entertain them and that play a role in their life and show up where they want them to show up,” said Diageo’s Kelly. “Some of the content will be just joyful, drink suggestions posed in a way that makes you want to reach through the screen and drink it. Some of the content will be turning up with people who are doing things that you admire in situations that you think are cool. Some of it is turning up and actually making a difference in communities.”