Brown-Forman's first-ever Snap filter · May 1–5, 2018

500K+ impressions. Half earned.

B-F's first compliance-cleared Snapchat filter. Coordinated Legal, Snap, the agency, and the brand team in a 5-day window.

AR / earnedBourbonCultural moment
9%+ Direct share rate ↑ phenomenal vs. category
TOTAL IMPRESSIONS
500K+
vs. 150K estimate (3.3x)
AGGREGATE PLAYTIME
9 days
unique brand exposure
SAVE-TO-MEMORIES
25%
saved to camera roll
LDA+ VERIFIED
94%
of paid impressions
THE PLAYBOOK

The 5-day compliance-and-iteration sprint

Snapchat didn't natively age-gate filters in 2018 — a regulatory non-starter for a spirits brand. Old Forester won conditional approval as the first B-F brand to trial a filter, with strict no-bottle/no-pour creative guardrails and a 5-day Kentucky Derby window.

We coordinated Brown-Forman Legal & Compliance, the creative agency, Snap's ad team, and the Old Forester brand team to ship a compliant filter on a $4K initial budget targeting Louisville +20mi (estimated reach: 150K).

When delivery underperformed in the first 48 hours, we expanded geo to national + spirits-purchase-behavior overlay and built a three-segment audience blend. Cinco de Derby Saturday: bumped budget +25% live, in pouring rain, on a phone.

The compliance-cleared sprint

  1. Stood up B-F's first Snap-filter compliance framework: cleared Legal & Compliance, agency creative, Snap ads team in days.
  2. Initial Louisville +20mi target underperformed — expanded geo + spirits-purchase-behavior in real-time on day 3.
  3. Built three-audience blend mixing broad/narrow geos + spirits and Derby interest signals.
  4. Cinco de Derby: +25% real-time budget bump while standing in pouring rain on race day.

What it produced

  1. 500,000+ impressions delivered — 3.3x the original 150K estimate.
  2. Roughly half of all impressions earned (consumers sharing to friends, not paid placements).
  3. Each user who shared sent the filter to 7+ friends on average; 25% saved it to their camera roll.
  4. 9%+ direct-share rate and 94% LDA+ established the playbook B-F still uses for Snap.