In 2019, J. Rieger & Co., engaged Highline Partners to help navigate the advertising and launch of their new distillery, located in the Heim Brewery’s bottling house, a 45,000 square foot, 3-story building built in 1901. Prior to Prohibition, the Heim’s bottled more 100,000 bottles of beer a day in the building, and shipped it out around the country on awaiting railcars right outside the front door. Sadly, the Heim brand, like the J. Rieger brand, were lost to Prohibition. However, in 2018 construction began to convert the building to J. Rieger & Co.'s new distillery, breathing new life into the space while opening a visitor’s experience for the first time.

 

Lead by entrepreneural-minded founders, the facility is in KC's historic Electric park neighborhood, an area once bustling with activity that the team dreams to revitalize. (We won't get into the massive sink hole that appeared in the road during launch week.)

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In the end it was the combination of J. Rieger & Co's rich 130+ year history, coupled with KC's storied history that made for an authentic series of creative concepts. Design cues and details from advertisements created in the 1800's were used as inspiration, along with punchy headlines to tout J. Rieger & Co.'s signature KC Whiskey designation (the only of its kind in the world). 

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Using outdoor, events, print ads, digital ads, and radio, the launch was irresistible.