Brown-Forman · 2022–2023
Rebuilding a legacy brand's social from the ground up
How Jack Daniel's went from a feed full of repurposed paid ads to a cohesive, high-performing organic presence. No new budget.
When interviewing for the role at Jack Daniel's, I was asked what I thought of their organic social. "It's kind of terrible," I told them. Apparently, they liked my candor.
The starting point was a brand-wide creative audit, building a cache of licensable, on-brand content across Jack Daniel's Black, Tennessee Fire, Tennessee Apple, and premium expressions. Tracking down layered source files meant I could strip or edit text, turning assets that couldn't be used into ones that could. More content, same budget: zero.
The bigger unlock came from conversations. Brand and Field teams were running programs with real production value, but almost none of it was making it to social. I started building those relationships, learned what was happening on the ground, and created a content capture guide giving Field Ambassadors a simple way to submit content that actually fit the brand. The feed transformed quickly. The result was 74% engagement growth built entirely on existing infrastructure, and a content pipeline that kept running after I left.
Before: repurposed paid ads dominating the feed
After: cohesive identity, zero additional budget
