EAST COAST GRAPHICS

Grey Goose vodka has taken the spirits category by storm with its award-winning taste and eye popping price tag. On January 13, it began reaching out to new fans with its Live from the Artist’s Den series of one-hour concert specials. The underground concert series, which will show emerging artists in extraordinary settings, airs on Ovation TV.

While the brand will offer logoed handouts and items with gift bags at the events, one thing it will not offer is CDs. The tracks will instead be available for purchase at iTunes. Grey Goose is very picky about where its logo is placed and would not reveal what items would appear at the events – you just have to be lucky enough to be in attendance.

Especially considering the line up which includes: Ben Harper on a 700-acre farm in Tennessee; Fountains of Wayne on a 100-year-old ship at New York’s South Street seaport; and The Swell Season at the Good Shepherd Center Chapel in Seattle.

“Presenting ‘The Artist’s Den’ is a unique and innovative way for Grey Goose Entertainment to establish a relationship with a new audience that it does not otherwise reach through original paid advertising,” says a spokesperson for Grey Goose Entertainment, New York. “It also supports the fact that Grey Goose is dedicated to producing original and unique content for television, music and film.”

Grey Goose also produces the series Iconoclasts for the Sundance channel where it brings together to two leading innovators from different fields to discuss their creative process.

While Abraham Lincoln may have written the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope, many a moment of inspiration was jotted down on a cocktail napkin. So much so, that Esquire magazine created a promotion asking people to pen some words of wisdom on these white paper goods.Esquire mailed 250 napkins to writers all over the country. In return, they received 100 short stories that ran in the magazine. Knob Creek, meanwhile, created a program called “Words to live by” where it offered poignant snippets of prose like “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

The two recently joined forces to launch “The Esquire.com Napkin Project with Knob Creek.” Consumers who visit Esquire.com can view interactive napkins featuring the words from both efforts. The virtual napkins can be zoomed in and flipped over. Other content from interviews with Knob Creek Whiskey Professors aimed to educate consumers about the joys of whiskey.

This is “a great example of how we create interactive content inspired by materials that originally appeared in the magazine. Because advertisers are funding added functionality on the site, users get a richer experience while being exposed to brands in unique ways. Advertisers are able to engage in a conversation with users in a forum that isn’t overly commercial or intrusive,” says Chris Johnson, vice president of content & business development for Hearst Magazines Digital Media.