Jim Beam has answered the prayers of one enterprising Trekkie who had launched a Twitter campaign to convince them to send him to the big Star Trek convention in Las Vegas. David Taylor, aka @SciFi_core is the first unofficial official Trekkie sponsored by Jim Beam to attend a con, and he’ll be in Vegas this August asking people how bold choices in their life have landed them where they are today — a Trekkie twist on Beam’s current ad campaign.
#JimBeamMeUp!
It all started with a simple tweet; a plea to @jimbeamofficial to send David Taylor to the annual Star Trek convention held in Las Vegas this August 11th. After initial tweets from David, Jim Beam’s official twitter page took notice, prompting the Seattle-based graphics designer to swing into full gear and create an entire ad campaign of his own based on Jim Beam and Trek. He even began producing Beam/Trek drink recipes and creating graphics for them.
“A dream that spread throughout the stars”
Last week, Jim Beam tweeted with much fanfare that they would be sending David to Star Trek Las Vegas! Support came pouring into Beam’s twitter account from other Trekkies saying thanks for supporting a fellow nerd and his dream. Some have even pledged to switch from other brands in support of Beam’s “bold choice”. “A dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars (Kirk),” reads a tweet from @jimbeamofficial, “- Congrats @SciFi_Core! You’re going to the LV Star Trek Conference!” To which they later added, “#JimBeamMeUp!”
No one was more surprised at Beam’s decision than David. “They’re risking their image on a total stranger… a total Trekkie,” he said. But, Jim Beam has made it clear that they want to reward David’s passion and creativity, and they’ve decided to make a bold choice.
@jimbeamofficial’s twitter announcement
Plans for the Con
Now that David has his convention tickets in the bag, he doesn’t plan to stop there! He intends to spread Jim Beam’s message that bold choices take you to where you’re supposed to be by interviewing fellow Trekkies in Las Vegas and asking them how the bold choices in their lives have lead them to the convention. In fact, he has an entire social marketing campaign in mind. “I’m going to shoot youtube videos, blog, and tweet during the con,” David told TrekMovie. “Then take the footage and make a mini documentary about choices. How the little things affect who we are… who we become. [Beam’s] Parallels ad fascinates me for the same reason I love time travel stories. Who could I be if small things had changed in my life. I think the campaign is really positive… Anything is possible if you make bold choices.”
Beam’s Bold Choice ad with Willem Dafoe
Like the parallel Star Trek universe created by JJ Abrams Trek, David sees Jim Beam’s Parallels commercial as a representation of the different universes we create each time we make a decision. He wants to embellish on this theme for his mini-doc. But, what if he had never sent that first tweet?
More #JimBeamMeUp
TrekMovie will be there in full force once again at Star Trek Las Vegas this August 11th at the Rio. And, we’ll be reporting on David’s adventures throughout the weekend. Watch this space for updates!
Gold, that is a great story. Congratulations to David for a having the snese to follow up on a clever concept.
*sense
Congratz to David !
It’s actually spelled Willem Defoe
Brilliant, fair play to that guy!
Thanks everyone! Jim Beam deserves a lot of credit. For a company being so strongly rooted in American tradition, their sense of humor and flexibility is impressive. Bold Choice Jim Beam!
I was going to say what an odd concept for Jim beam to be interested in until I realized this guy initiated it all. I’m all for taking matters in your own hands and making something happen that didnt exist before. Good for you, man! Cool beans!
Awesome, I was hoping this guy would go all the way with this! :D Congratulations, David Taylor!
This is a great story. I’ve never been a whiskey drinker, only the occasional rum and coke or vodka and orange juice, but after this I might have to give it a try to support Jim Beam for taking a chance on a Trek fan.
#6 Scifi_Core
Congrats, David. See, creativity and hard work do pay off. You’ve inspired me, for sure.
I’m currently looking for a job and a way to support my family, and I needed a good pick-me-up this morning.
Blessings and long life.
=A=
#6 Scifi_Core
Congrats, David. See, creativity and hard work do pay off. You’ve inspired me, for sure.
I’m currently looking for a new career and a way to support my family, and I needed a good pick-me-up this morning.
Blessings and long life.
=A=
Great Job Scifi_core! Now…. any new recipes you came up with?
Oh… one other thing… Jim beam should totally hire you to be the next spokesperson for Jim Beam…. especially during the hype of the release of the next movie.
#13. I couldn’t agree with you more! #12. Thanks… I’m workin’ on it.
That is so awesome. Congrats, dude. I’m so happy for you. True passion, creativity, and hard work will always bring good fortune.
I was one of the first to congratulate David on Twitter, and want to reiterate here. Jim Beam proved itself a classy organization by sponsoring David.
Good job, David. You just proved how effective a viral marketing campaign can be.
Now, let’s all back the other viral campaign out there and Make Mary Dehner! http://www.makemedehner.com
#6 congrats and love those ads you made… ponders on how Captain Morgan can be used for Trek :p
I’m already going to the convention…
I can’t believe this stunt worked. :)
Happy it did though – reflects pretty well on the company, I suppose.
*applauds*
#17.
Well, they can get Kelsey Grammar to reprise his role as Captain Morgan Bateson for a “Captain Morgan” promo!
Congratulations! I thought it would work. It is good positive promotion for Jim Beam. They will reach a lot of people, who generally don’t care about whiskey. And all this advertising costs them only a very small amount of money.
Wow! Congratulations!!!
What happened to “Trekker”?
I guess from here on in, its going to be “A CREATION Star Trek Convention Brought To You By JIM BEAM”! Featuring Jim Beam advertised prominently throughout the convention, on the outside billboards, to t-shirts worn by the staff, to signs above the stages where the actors meet the fans.
That could be the one negative, product placement. Oh well. At least it made one guy’s dream come true!
#25 Jim Beam isn’t sponsoring any of this (other than my trip to the con) so don’t worry about product advertising. This isn’t their publicity stunt… It’s just me trying to meet Leonard Nimoy. Personally, I think it would be cool if they did… I love Jim Beam.
#24 Trekkie vs. Trekker; I made the choice in the 80s. I am a Trekkie. Always have been, always will be. As Jim Beam would say, Bold Choice.
Congrats david for being bold and smart and very imaginative-did they get you plane tickets n hotel also? Im another long time trekker whos been outa work for a couple of years-i went once to the 40th ann vegas con it was great-havent been able to afford to go since so i rely on anthony n trekmovie to live vicariously-so keep giving us updates n have an awesome time-you deserve to go based on yer hard work n imagination-glad jim beam agreed–i am also a fellow nw trekker living in tacoma, an hour south of you-take care have fun ntellus all about it! Go Boldly!
@ 24 / 27
“Trekker” sounds like tractor in German, so I am all for being called a “Trekkie”. It sounds better to my German ears than being called a farm machine. ;-)
The only place Jim Beam has ever put me is on the floor. Albeit after a flurry of exotic and fast-paced nights.
#28 Jim – Yeah Jim Beam is helping me with airfare, hotel, and the convention tickets. I’m on my own for everything else. Tacoma, eh? You’re just down the road. Thanks for the compliments it means a lot to me. Best of luck… One bold choice can change everything.
#26.
You just opened the door, my friend. Except you still haven’t realized it. Also, what do you call what you’re doing? You’ve created an ad campaign, which does make it product placement. Because you just placed Jim Beam alongside “Star Trek”!
Excellent news for David and I hope to meet up with him at the Vegas CON.
We can share a Rye Highball (Rye Whiskey & ginger ale) as I enjoy Jim Beam Rye. Although in my travels (drinking) I have never heard or seen this Devils Cut. Sounds interesting, it may even replace Romulan Ale….. well, maybe not.
Congrats David, job well done! My bold choice is to always have a bold cocktail when the time is right.
ha lt bailey–maybe make an honorary warp core breach for david n see if the five kinds of rum will cause a bigger meltdown than jim beam me up does–hah david u will be honored to meet lt bailey–i hope to make it to a con again one of these years so i can meet him also–its been a bad year being outta work,my father passing away,sheri having tons of medical problems–but someday…someday-lt bailey im pretty sure u know the couple that went to quarks every day for months til closing–i did get to meet him,dang cant remember his name–when i said bye to april n the experience two weeks before they closed–ah well have fun everyone!
Well, this is a pretty neat — and punny — promotional use of a cultural trope, I must say.
Now if we could only get Enterprise, the car rental company, to do something Trek-related (besides having Patrick Stewart do its commercials, that is).
I still remember Leonard Nimoy doing that “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile” campaign for GM.
Along similar lines, Kaiser Permanente’s “Thrive” campaign could be converted to one centered around “Live Long and Prosper.” (Kaiser Permanente is a well-known regional HMO (health maintenance organization) that runs its own chain of hospitals and does quite a bit of advertising in California.)
Oh, and speaking of product placements, who can forget the prominent role given over to Nokia, the cell phone company, in ST2009?
Unfortunately, Nokia is going down the tubes, relatively speaking, having lost a great deal of market share, especially in the United States.
Oddly, Apple, the maker of the uber-successful iPhone — Nokia’s direct competition — prominently featured ST2009 in its store displays for the original iPad. (And the iPad is deliberately reminiscent of the PADD, as I’m told.)
So, might an Apple product placement be in the works for the next Trek movie?
#36.
“So, might an Apple product placement be in the works for the next Trek movie?”
We already had that in the first movie. It’s called the iBridge. ;-)
#34
Jim, my friend! You can always count on a Warp Core Breach to drink when I am around. In fact, I hear that the Voodoo Lounge a the Rio has a very close if not exact copy of that drink.
You are referring to Gerry Lebrato, he is the man who spent 55 night straight at Quarks til it closed. He and his wife (Francine) were there on the closing night and you can see them on the DVD set of TNG movies that was released last year. We spend a lot of time with them when my wife and I are in Vegas. They wanted us to come out to Vegas for that closing night but it was way to tough for me. Its still tough for me to watch the DVD when i see our freind Portland Dave cry. Dave now lives in Vegas so we meet up with the crew that occupied Quarks during the heyday of STTE.
#16 Thank you! So happy for David Taylor. I wrote a blog about him the day before he got the official word. This is happening to such a nice deserving guy. David even offered to make a Doctor Dehner drink in honor of my campaign. We are currently collaborating on that. As you mentioned people can visit http://www.makemedehner.com for another grassroots fan campaign. Let’s hope the powers that be listen like they did for David.
yup how could i forget gerrys name(francine wasnt there when we dropped by–and yes i know what u mean about it being tough to be there closing day–thats why we went two weeks-for one thing everybody like april woulda been too busy n too emotional to say bye too so i appreciated what we did-also nice to know someone besides me tears up watching the closing video–its a beautiful piece n even tho i havent meant dave i know who he must be in the video,the large very emotional guy–cant miss him–to me that last day video is the best bluray i have-it made me feel like i was there and dave used to live in portland huh just a few hours south and one state down from where we live in tacoma wa–good stuff to reminice n all lt bailey sir-thanks–n best of luck for dave taylor to have a great time at the con-all u regulars help him out n have fun i am jealous of all of ya–hah