Johnnie Walker premium Blue Label whisky lets guests personalize their bottle, thanks to AI | 08-08-2024 |

During the recent AIPIA conference during ProPak Asia in Bangkok, one of the speakers, Aire Global showed the power AI brings to the packaging design process. Now Diageo has taken this a step further, inviting guests who visit its Johnnie Walker Princes Street Spirit Tourism Experience, in Edinburgh, Scotland, to discover Johnnie Walker x Scott Naismith. This is a Generative AI-powered experience that allows guests to co-design a personalized bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. Only available at the Edinburgh venue, the experience is set to run from August 1-31 2024, and is believed to be the first ever to combine world-class Scotch whisky, art, and AI.

The experience will prompt visitors to answer three simple questions that will influence key themes in Scottish artist Scott Naismith’s work, ultimately impacting their bottle design. The simple prompts will generate various colours, locations, artistic styles and times of day, resulting in a unique bottle that will be printed in a matter of minutes.

The experience is powered by ‘Project Halo’, a Diageo Breakthrough Innovation that allows brands and consumers to co-create personalised label designs/product artwork. The launch comes as consumers increasingly search for unique experiences and products that signal belonging, status, and personality, whether it’s for themselves or others, says the company. 

Diageo’s Breakthrough Innovation team is committed to actively looking for partners to collaborate with to test and learn Breakthrough ideas. ‘Project Halo’ continues this commitment, with Diageo partnering with industry experts, including 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.

Guests can access the experience with every purchase of Johnnie Walker Blue Label in the venue’s retail store during August. 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 limited edition Johnnie Walker Blue Label ‘Elusive Umami’, in the rooftop Explorers’ Bothy bar.

Will Harvey, senior global innovation manager at Diageo, said “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. Demand for personalisation 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.”

Rob Maxwell, head of Johnnie Walker Princes Street, added, “Since opening, the Experience 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.”

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