From an indistinct ingredient story
To an immersive journey up the California coast.
CHALLENGE:
Gray Whale Gin — sustainably sourced and consciously crafted — wanted to expand its reach under the Deutsch Family portfolio. With new media dollars but limited production budget, the team needed to create compelling cocktail and ingredient videos that could celebrate California’s coastal story without the cost of physically shooting there.
STRATEGY:
Every gin talks about what’s in the bottle. We focused on where it comes from. Rather than retell another ingredient story, we transformed Gray Whale’s California origins into a sensory journey — connecting the brand’s sustainability ethos with the spirit of exploration. The strategy: capture the feeling of the coast, not just the facts of it. To prove that you don’t have to travel to feel transported.
CREATIVE SOLUTION:
Using cutting-edge Extended Reality (XR) technology, we transported Gray Whale Gin’s world to a studio in Derry, New Hampshire. With a 180° LED wall and Unreal Engine, we created fifteen immersive, hand-crafted backdrops — from Big Sur cliffs and Santa Cruz bar tops to Mendocino beaches. Each scene was sculpted with cinematic precision: swaying palms, glowing sunsets, and crashing waves, all rendered in real time.The result was a breathtaking digital tour of the California coast with no airfare required, and zero compromise on authenticity.
COLLABORATORS:
StudioLab
Behind-the-scenes
How do you deliver a taste of the Golden Coast without actually going there? Turns out there’s a portal straight to California in the town of Derry, New Hampshire.
Using XR technology and the help of our friends at Studio Lab, we built fifteen uniquely scenic backdrops for our traveling product. Through the use of a 180° LED wall and technology like Unreal Engine, we crafted picture-perfect scenes to pair with practical elements – taking us from Big Sur patios, Santa Cruz bar tops, or beaches of the Mendocino Coast.
